Jeremy Greenwood, Professor of Economics
“The cool thing about economics,” says Jeremy Greenwood, “is that you can take higher-level math and relate it to everyday life. While mathematics may be fun, it is essential for research in modern economics.”
That interconnection is the focus of the professor of economics’ latest book, Evolving Households: The Imprint of Technology on Life. The book develops economic models for analyzing long-term changes in American family life and cultural practices as a result of advances in technology.
“Most people understand that the steam engine is associated with the Industrial Revolution, electricity and gas were associated with the Second Industrial Revolution, and that computers are associated with the Information Age,” says Greenwood, a macroeconomist. “All of these things changed business dramatically, but technological progress has had a huge impact on the household, too.”
One of the most profound social changes he traces over the past 100 years is the surge in the number of married women in America who work outside the home—going from essentially zero at the turn of the 20th century to the majority of married women today. The book shows how this change stems in part from the development of labor-saving household appliances, freeing women to pursue other activities.
For example, in 1900, 98 percent of households relied on scrub boards for washing clothing, and water had to be hauled to wood- or coal-burning stoves to heat, making the chore of doing laundry a grueling, hours-long endeavor. The introduction of washing machines—first mechanical and then electric—drastically reduced the amount of time spent on the task. Other advances like disposable diapers and infant formula decreased time spent on child care and allowed women to be away from the home for longer periods.
“On the other side, in the labor market, machines displaced the need for physical labor,” says Greenwood. “That allowed jobs to shift more toward what people call ‘soft jobs’ or a movement away from ‘brawn to brain’—these are jobs that women have a comparative advantage in. The demand for labor in those jobs has grown over time.”
Greenwood argues that the women’s movement followed, not preceded, the entry of women into the workplace. “Women were already starting to work in white collar jobs but felt they were discriminated against, and so they clamored for better treatment,” he says.
The book tracks technologies such as contraception and medical advances with other long-term trends like the decline in marriage, the drop in fertility rates, the prevalence of premarital sex, increases in longevity and healthcare expenditures, and more years spent in retirement—with a concomitant rise in the demand for leisure goods and entertainment.
Technology continues to evolve with implications for how we live and will live in the future. Prognostication is dangerous, Greenwood writes, but artificial intelligence, robotic devices, and driverless vehicles are just a few of the innovations that are having an impact.
Will automation eliminate most jobs? Greenwood thinks a more likely scenario is that other forms of employment will materialize. He points to the way ATM machines displaced many bank tellers, but that banks then expanded their business model to include a wide range of financial products and services, so the number of employees hasn’t declined.
Evolving Households is geared toward researchers and advanced students of economics, particularly those studying family economics. Greenwood says economists need a solid grounding in higher-level mathematics, including calculus and probability theory, to understand long-term trends, estimate costs and benefits, and formulate predictions.
“Economics, increasingly, is a hard science,” he says. He’s noticed a lag in the mathematical training of American students entering graduate school in economics, and the book addresses the gap by including a mathematical appendix.
Greenwood hopes the book will give researchers ideas for study, as well as the tools to investigate current social issues—how to improve outcomes for children raised in single-parent households, for example, or how to calculate the effects of policy proposals such as a guaranteed minimum income.
“Ultimately,” he says, “economists want to know what works.”
