Investing in Care: A Strategy for Effective and Equitable Job Creation

Abstract

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Unpaid Work and the Economy: Linkages and Their Implications

“…Consequently, on the one hand, women experience time stress and the depletion of their energy (and productivity), while on the other hand, children suffer in multiple ways, such as loss of childhood, sub-optimal growth, and care deficiency. Several other studies have been conducted by researchers in the context of global crises, austerity policies, trade policies, etc., and have produced similar results (Antonopoulos 2014). 20 An important implication of the above is that policymakers tend to go very wrong in designing and monitoring macroeconomic policies if unpaid work is excluded from the policy analysis.…”

“…However, it can be argued: (1) the generation of mainstream employment, as well as ensuring professional child care, have significant multiplier impacts at the macro level 16 (Antonopoulos et al 2014), and (2) the financial space of the budget can be increased by following the principle of "maximum available resources" 17 (Balakrishnan et al 2011). The returns from the reorganization of labor will certainly outweigh the costs.…”

Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Time Use of Married and Cohabiting Parents during the Great Recession

“…Since the 1990s, feminist economic scholarship has developed gender-aware frameworks and models for analysis of macroeconomic phenomena and policies (Antonopoulos et al, 2013;İlkkaracan, forthcoming;Karamessini and Rubery, forthcoming;Rubery 1988Rubery , 2013. 2 Elson (2010) provides such a framework for the analysis of the gender dimensions of the Great Recession-where inequalities by gender played a role in contributing to the financial crisis and the subsequent recession-as well as the subsequent policy responses that have gendered outcomes in the spheres of finance, production, and reproduction.…”

Time Use of Parents in the United States: What Difference Did the Great Recession Make?

“…Feminist economists have long advocated for policies to encourage both women and men to combine paid work with family care (Folbre and Nelson 2000). In the aftermath of the Great Recession, feminist studies also argued for public investment in care, in particular direct investment in localized, community-based social care services of home-based health care and early childhood development (Antonopoulos et al 2013). Through a simulation exercise, Antonopoulos et al (2013) find that investment in social care creates considerably more jobs than its alternatives of investment in infrastructure and green energy.…”