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51 sats \ 7 replies \ @cryotosensei 23 Feb \ parent \ on: What is your ECON curriculum? econ
What branch of economics is closest to parenting?
My knee jerk response is attention economy, but I defer to the aficionados and experts for more fitting answers
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Care to elaborate?
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I was introduced briefly to this concept by Matthew B. Crawford in [The Cost of Paying Attention]
(https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/opinion/sunday/the-cost-of-paying-attention.html). He wrote a book on the idea, but I never got to it.
The gist of it if I remember correctly is that our attention is a scarce resource, and it is being hijacked by advertising in more Insidious ways than ever. We can't fill up our car with gas without being subjected to something like Entertainment Tonight on the pump.
My admittely flippant Idea that this has anything to do with parenting is that it takes a great deal of attention, and safeguarding and investing that attention into the family is a skill that may be taken for granted by some people who do it well, and a skill some families may benefit from adopting.
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I totally agree. Even if you are fully present in the moment, your attention is still fragmented because your children may have totally different needs. I will always remember how my son was clamouring for his diaper to be changed when I was feeling my baby girl milk!
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I thought it was something like that. I've heard it discussed in passing, but not any of the major takeaways.
That's definitely relevant to parenting and I believe Sensei has written about trying to manage his attention as a parent.
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Still at the rookie level!
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Probably Theory of the Firm. It's part of micro theory and deals heavily with principle-agent models. In the context of parenting, you and your wife are the principles and your kids are the agents. These models cover how the principle should structure incentives so that the agent will do what the principle wants. Appropriate incentives can vary widely depending on the situation.
There are some great books about parenting specifically, though.
- Bryan Caplan's Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids
- Emily Oster has three: Expecting Better, Crib Sheet, The Family Firm
I haven't finished The Family Firm, yet, but Emily's other two books are great resources for people just starting a family or with very young kids.
Bryan's book is a bit more technical, but I think it has the more profound message.
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