Gary Becker of the University of Chicago has died: Created "Rotten Kid Theorem."

RIP: Prof. Gary S. Becker of the University of Chicago died.  NYT: “Households, for example, were long seen as entities intent only on maximizing consumption, but Mr. Becker saw them as small factories that also produce valuable, though nonmarketable, basics of life, like leisure and sleeping.” He also came up with the “Rotten Kid Theorem:”  He wrote, “Children have an incentive to act altruistically toward each other as their parents want them to, even if children are really egotistical.” He believed that “behavior is driven by a much richer set of values and preferences that can also include altruism, loyalty and spite.”

The thing that I most remember is that he long ago said that children had changed from economic assets (i.e. a retirement program) of parents into consumption items.  Large families would come to be seen as signs of affluence.