Family Planning and Poverty: Birth Control, Contraception, Sex Education, and Poverty in Marshall, Pareto and Wicksell

Miriam Bankovsky, Rebeca Gomez Betancourt () and Marianne Johnson
Additional contact information
Miriam Bankovsky: La Trobe University [Melbourne]
Rebeca Gomez Betancourt: TRIANGLE - Triangle : action, discours, pensée politique et économique - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UL2 - Université Lumière - Lyon 2 - IEP Lyon - Sciences Po Lyon - Institut d'études politiques de Lyon - Université de Lyon - UJM - Université Jean Monnet - Saint-Étienne - UJM EPE - Université Jean Monnet (EPSCPE) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Marianne Johnson: UWO - University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: We compare Alfred Marshall, Vilfredo Pareto, and Knut Wicksell on the relation of family size to poverty, considering their (1) views on Thomas Robert Malthus, (2) contributions to statistical studies of population and standards of living, and (3) theories of poverty. While they shared the conclusion that to reduce poverty required decreasing the family sizes of the poor and working classes, they diverged on how this should be accomplished. Marshall rejected the use of contraceptives and argued that family limitation should arise from delayed marriage and restraint within marriage. Pareto thought such recommendations unscientific and unrealistic. Statistically, it was clear that people practiced preventative checks to varying degrees across countries and across classes; privately, Pareto supported the use of birth control as a responsible choice. Wicksell took the most radical position, publicly advocating for legal contraceptives and sex education for everyone regardless of class or marital status. We show how their working out of the problem of poverty subsumed additional questions of positive and normative science and the role and status of moral judgment in policy. Their discussion of the public interest in private reproductive choices reflects many of the same tensions that characterize contemporary discussions, indicating the continuing relevancy of the topic.

Keywords: poverty; family planning; Knut Wicksell; Vilfredo Pareto; Alfred Marshall; History of economic thought (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2026, 48 (1), pp.19-42. ⟨10.1017/S1053837225100837⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05635206

DOI: 10.1017/S1053837225100837

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().