This article introduces the reader to a new framework for conceptualizing and measuring economic activity called caring economics. Going beyond the conventional understanding of economic activity as that which unfolds in markets, caring economics highlights the work of care and caregiving that occurs within households and is often unpaid. This article also unveils a new set of measures based on the framework of caring economics that are urgently needed by policymakers and business leaders to foster personal, business, and national economic success.
AntonopoulosR., & HirwayI. (Eds.). (2010). Unpaid work and the economy. In AntonopoulosR. & HirwayI. (Eds.), Unpaid work and the economy: Gender, time-use and poverty in developing countries (pp. 1–21). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
2.
BridgmanB., DuganA., LalM., OsborneM., & VillonesS. (2012). Accounting for household production in the national accounts, 1965–2010. Survey of Current Business, 92(5), 23–36. Retrieved from http://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2012/05%20May/0512_household.pdf.
3.
EislerR. (2008). The real wealth of nations: Creating a caring economics. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
4.
EislerR. (2012). Economics as if caring matters. Challenge, 55(2), 58–86.
5.
EsquivelV. (2011). The care economy in Latin America: Putting care at the center of the agenda. San Salvador, El Salvador: Procesos Graficos.
6.
FolbreN. (2006). Measuring care: Gender, empowerment, and the care economy. Journal of Human Development, 7(2), 183–199.
7.
GambaroL., StewartK., & WaldfogelJ. (Eds.). (2014). An equal start?: Providing quality early education and care for disadvantaged children. Bristol, United Kingdom: Policy Press.
8.
GhoshI. (2014). Social wealth economic indicators for a caring economy. Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, 1(1), 5.
9.
HoenigS. A., & PageA. R. E. (2012). Counting on care work in Australia. Sydney, Australia: AEC Group.
10.
LandefeldL. J., FraumeniB., & VojtechC. M. (2009). Accounting for household production: A prototype satellite account using the American Time Use Survey. Review of Income and Wealth, 55(2), 205–225.
11.
PerryB. (2002). Childhood experience and the expression of genetic potential: What childhood neglect tells us about nature and nurture. Brain and Mind, 3(1), 79–100.
12.
RuhmC. J., & WaldfogelJ. (2012). Long-term effects of early childhood care and education. Nordic Economic Policy Review, 23(1), 23–51.
13.
StiglitzJ. E., SenA., & FitoussiJ.-P. (2010). Mismeasuring our lives: Why GDP doesn't add up. New York, NY: The New Press.
