Care and household reproduction are critical activities of the economy with important implications for wellbeing and productivity. They are also activities predominantly performed by women. Esther Boserup’s seminal work on women in economic development in the 1970s first brought women’s labour into the frame of economic analysis. Since then leading feminist economists such as Marilyn Waring, Nancy Folbre, Julie Nelson, Diane Elson, Bina Aggarwal, Rhonda Sharp and many others have contributed to the development of a robust and large body of literature that has redefined how we think about the economy, what we count as work, and what we value as productive. The promotion of well-being for all has often been at the centre of this literature. In more recent years feminist economists have also turned their attention to care markets and the emergence of the ‘care economy’ – particularly in aged care, child care and disability care. In this panel three leading scholars on the economics of care will address contemporary theoretical and policy questions.

Chair: Dr Elizabeth Hill, Chair, Department of Political Economy, The University of Sydney 

Professor Paul Dalziel & Professor Caroline Saunders, Lincoln University New Zealand

Wellbeing economics and care within households

Professor Gabrielle Meagher, Macquarie University

Markets for care services: choices, challenges and contradictions?

Professor Siobhan Austen, Curtin University

Crossing the great divide: co-production and the economics of aged care work

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