The purpose of this paper is to deal with dynamic interdependence between economic growth and family-based behavior. The decision unit on consumption and saving is the family which is composed of the husband and the wife. | Gender Power and Family Decision in an Extended Solowian Economic Growth Model Technium Social Sciences Journal Vol. 5 70-83 March 2020 ISSN 2668-7798 Gender Power and Family Decision in an Extended Solowian Economic Growth Model Prof. Wei-Bin Zhang Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University Japan wbz1@ Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to deal with dynamic interdependence between economic growth and family-based behavior. The decision unit on consumption and saving is the family which is composed of the husband and the wife. The model endogenously determines national growth family goods family wealth and gender-differentiated consumption and labor supply with fixed distribution of power between the husband and the wife. The model is based on synthesizing a few approaches in economics. The growth mechanism and economic structure are based on a generalized Solowian growth model. The household behavior is based on Zhang s concept of disposable income and utility. The power distribution is referred to the collective approach by Basu 2006 . We first develop the model and study dynamic behavior of the model. We conduct comparative dynamic analyses to demonstrate how economic growth interacts with family behavior by allowing exogenous changes in gender power distribution gender-based preferences and human capital and national technological changes. Keywords. gender power family decision economic growth Solow model Introduction In his classical paper Social Indifference Curves Paul Samuelson 1956 points out the situation in microeconomics Who after all is the consumer in the theory of consumer s not consumers behavior Is he a bachelor A spinster Or is he a spending unit as defined by statistical pollsters and recorders of budgetary spending In most of the cultures actually studied by modern economists the fundamental unit on the demand side is clearly the family and this consists of a single individual in a fraction of cases. In the .
