Economic Well-Being

Foreword by Lisa E. Cox, PhD, LCSW, MSW
Acknowledgments

Part I: Studying Economic Life

Chapter 1: Why Study the Economy?
Chapter 2: The Evolving Economy and Economics
Chapter 3: Markets as Economic Institutions: Supply and Demand
Chapter 4: Governments and Nonprofits as Economic Institutions

Part II: Measuring Macroeconomic Well-Being

Chapter 5: The Twin Problems of Unemployment and Underemployment
Chapter 6: The Kitchen Table Economy: Keeping Up with Rising Costs
Chapter 7: Economic Growth and Human Development

Part III: How Is the Economic Pie Divided? Distribution and Disparities

Chapter 8: The Rise of Income Inequality
Chapter 9: Gender, Race, and Ethnic Disparities
Chapter 10: Poverty, Food Security, and Self-Sufficiency
Chapter 11: Wealth, Assets, and Household Debt

Part IV: Pursuing Economic Justice and Well-Being through Public Policy

Chapter 12: Economic Stabilization Policies
Chapter 13: Policies to Address Disparities

A Refresher on Statistical Literacy
References
Index
About the Authors
About the “Voices from the Field” Contributors

Deborah M. Figart, PhD, is distinguished professor emerita of economics at Stockton University. While at Stockton, she founded the Stockton Center for Economic and Financial Literacy and directed the center from 2010 to 2014. She is the author or editor of 22 books and more than 100 other publications. Her scholarship has focused on employment and economic well-being, including issues such as discrimination, job quality, working time, casino employment, emotional labor at work, minimum and living wage campaigns, the underbanked and financial literacy, student loans, public banking initiatives, and local economic development.  Dr. Figart’s service includes the presidencies of two international professional associations: the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) in 2016 and the Association for Social Economics (ASE) in 2006. For ASE, she served three terms as coeditor of the Review of Social Economy. She also continues her long-term participation in the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE); she was a founding member in 1992. Since 2010, she has served on the board of Navicore Solutions, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to counseling consumers about financial management and debt issues. She is a member of the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition. As a Stockton faculty member, she served two terms as chief negotiator of the Stockton Federation of Teachers (AFT [American Federation of Teachers] Local 2275).

Ellen Mutari, PhD, is professor emerita of economics at Stockton University, where she taught economics, women’s and gender studies, and developmental math. She previously held visiting positions with the graduate faculty of The New School, the Rutgers University School of Labor Studies and Employment Relations, and Monmouth University. Her coauthored books include Just One More Hand: Life in the Casino Economy (2015) and Living Wages, Equal Wages: Gender and Labor Market Policies in the United States (2002), among numerous other publications focusing on feminist political economy, gendered employment, and the role of work in constructing identity. In 2015, she served as president of the Association for Social Economics. She has been a steward for District 925 of the Service Employees International Union and grievance officer for the Stockton Federation of Teachers (AFT Local 2275).

About the “Voices from the Field” Contributors

Kristin Brown, BSW, LCSW, is director of the South Jersey Vet Center in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey.

Michael Cronin, PhD, MSW, LCSW, is associate professor in the Department of Social Work, Monmouth University, in West Long Branch, New Jersey, and the Main Representative of the International Federation of Social Workers at the United Nations in New York City.

Claudia Dunne, MSW, LICSW, is director of social work and private social service vendors in the Youth Advocacy Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, Public Defenders Office of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Roxbury.

Gloria Hamlett, MSW, LSW, is an intensive in-home community therapist with Latino Family Connections LLC in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Indira M. Henard, DSW, MSW, is executive director of the DC Rape Crisis Center in Washington, DC.

Benjamin F. Henwood, PhD, LCSW, is associate professor at the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at the University of Southern California and director of the university’s Center for Homelessness, Housing and Health Research. He is national co-lead of the Social Work Grand Challenge to End Homelessness.

Stephen P. Paschall, MS, MSW, JD, practices law at Lovett Bookman Harmon Marks, LLP, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Linda Santoro, MSW, LCSW, is a medical social worker at Indiana University Health Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Andy Schachat, MSW, is State Health Insurance Assistance Program counselor in Dover, New Hampshire.

Sebrina Tate, MSW, MS, is executive director of Bebashi—Transition to Hope in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Earn 9.5 CEUs for reading this title! For more information, visit the Social Work Online CE Institute.

This innovative introductory economics text prepared for social workers warrants a wide readership. Figart and Mutari open their text by anchoring the discussion on Amartya Sen’s functionings and capabilities approach to the relationship between economic status and well-being. This, in and of itself, is a refreshing departure from the customary paralyzing emphasis on scarcity as the cornerstone of economic analysis. Instead, by beginning with functionings and capabilities, Economic Well-Being immediately moves into a rich conversation about the real circumstances and challenges confronting families due to depressed incomes and wealth and a substantial exploration of social policies that might give them greater security and opportunity.

William Darity, Jr., PhD
Director, Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity
Duke University, Durham, NC

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In this introduction to economic well-being, Figart and Mutari provide social workers all the information they need to knowledgeably advocate for economic justice on behalf of clients and communities. They expertly explain competing economic theories and how they manifest in current policies that can either help children, families, and marginalized populations, or perpetuate systems of oppression. This book is a must-have for practitioners who want to learn about the structures of our economic system, and why the United States is as unequal economically as it is today.

Patrick J. Meehan, PhD, MSW
Assistant research scientist
School of Social Work
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

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Figart and Mutari’s book fills a crucial but unmet need for students of social work and related professions to understand key economic concepts. Well written and with clear explanations free of jargon, the authors focus on selected topics that are highly relevant to practice, such as kitchen table economics and poverty measurement. Their analysis focuses on understanding the way economies work, illuminating the struggles that so many American households face today, especially those on the margins. At the same time, Figart and Mutari provide a wide range of perspectives and policy options, so that students will better understand not only the context faced by their clients, but also the policy debates that shape the way that the economy works.

Diana M. Pearce
Senior lecturer emerita, director emerita, and scholar in residence
Center for Women’s Welfare, School of Social Work
University of Washington, Seattle

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Economic Well-Being: An Introduction provides a framework for understanding not only economics as a subject, but also the historical and normative context that economics has been developed to help understand the policies designed to shape social provisioning and everyday lives. Deb Figart and Ellen Mutari provide a structure for understanding what economics is, beyond the narrow definitions taught in an Economics 101 course. This context is useful for social services practitioners to understand both the opportunities and the limits of economic policy in improving everyday well-being.

Kate Bahn, PhD
Chief economist
Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Washington, DC

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This book makes complex economic concepts simple and offers clear definitions along with the voices of practitioners in the field. The data and examples are up to date, and each chapter ends with resources where the reader can learn more or find the latest information. It is an excellent resource for social work students and anyone wanting to better understand economic well-being.

Trina R. Shanks, PhD, LCSW
Director of community engagement
Harold R. Johnson collegiate professor
School of Social Work
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Co-lead, Social Work Grand Challenge to Reduce Extreme Economic Inequality

To hear an interview with the book’s authors, Deborah M. Figart and Ellen Mutari, listen to the NASW Social Work Talks podcast or watch the interview below!

Economic Well-Being: An Introduction was reviewed by Sara Casagrande for the journal Forum for Social Economics.

Economic theory is expected to answer the two fundamental questions of how real economic systems work and how they should work to meet the goals of human societies. Orthodoxy explains, through an axiomatic approach, how an ahistorical economic system, made up of rational agents, works according to a set of unrealistic assumptions. Orthodox equilibrium economics, by postulating optimality and fairness, lacks realism and predictive power, and fails to properly incorporate ethical issues. This article reviews three contributions that demonstrate how modern heterodoxy aims to recover realism and humanism within economic theory in order to face the challenges of real-world human economic systems. These contributions are books by Deborah M. Figart and Ellen Mutari (Economic well-being: An introduction), John Komlos (Foundations of real-world economics. What every economics student needs to know), and John P. Watkins (The origins and evolution of consumer capitalism. A Veblenian–Keynesian perspective).

Read the full review. Available to subscribers of the Forum for Social Economics.

I am delighted to introduce this easy-to-read and interesting economics text for social workers and other human services providers. Over time, as an experienced social work practitioner, professor, and textbook author, I have observed that many social work students fear economics courses. Yet individual social workers, administrators, and professional organizations are active participants in coalitions that promote social change directed toward the goal of promoting economic equality and economic justice. In addition, I have observed how citizens are questioning why the cost of living continues to skyrocket in the United States, creating undue hardship for many Americans. To best help people and society, students need to be informed about economics so they will graduate and become informed voting citizens, savvy investors, and conveyors of financial literacy.

When social workers and other helping professionals conduct biopsychosocial assessments with their clients, they need to be economically literate and understand the basics of economics, inflation, savings, poverty, and employment. Social work professionals who are critical thinkers want to know which economic numbers and evidence to trust. As public servants, they want to help vulnerable people maximize their well-being and connect with financial resources. To help clients positively cope and successfully access these resources, social workers need to understand complicated and controversial economics-related concepts and ask important questions. For example, with fuel costing more at the pump, social workers might ask their clients, “Would using a bus be more economical?” As consumers are paying more for coffee, sugar, and beef, a year after the pandemic recession, social workers are also asking their clients, “How about accessing a food pantry to help stretch your dollar?”

In this book, Deborah M. Figart and Ellen Mutari address the economic circumstances and the effects on social workers and their clients. For example, in chapter 6, “The Kitchen Table Economy,” discussion highlights key concepts related to inflation, purchasing power, and economic policies. Throughout the book, Figart and Mutari provide practical examples through “Voices from the Field,” which are stories from practicing social workers that will help readers appreciate complex economic principles. The authors have clearly illustrated the realities, intricacies, and relevance of economics to frontline social workers, policymakers, and other helping professionals.

This book defines multiple concepts embraced by the media and lawmakers (e.g., household debt, financial well-being) and goes beyond to apply economic concepts and excite readers with applicable examples of how provisioning and investing work. This book educates students on economic policies that create the structural context of the communities they serve. When reading the content, students will realize how economics determines the resources that will be available to social workers and their clients as well as the systems in which they exist. They will more clearly see that although government creates and prints money and citizens work to earn it, social workers are the ones who endeavor to help clients, social systems, and communities understand economic processes and policies, purchase products and services, and invest smartly. Such acquired knowledge can elucidate financial issues at the local, organizational, and global levels. Amid times of economic volatility, social workers must be informed to be effective in promoting a better life for their clients.

The term “welfare economics” evokes thoughts about how income is distributed to achieve social good and how considerations about people’s preferences at a microeconomic level get applied to macroeconomics to improve equality and utility. Thankfully, the authors examine social welfare economics in such a way that the reader can more objectively consider their own value judgments about what ought to be produced, how production could be organized, and how wealth and income might best be distributed now and in the future. Figart and Mutari sensibly remind readers that no one is self-sufficient and that social provisioning is a process by which people obtain resources and assets they need to effectively function. Assuredly, this book is very readable for undergraduate (BSW)- and graduate (MSW)-level students as well as working social work practitioners and other human services students and professionals. From the outset, the authors are committed to teaching about economic well-being and economic justice. As a colleague of the authors for more than 20 years, I can attest to how eagerly social work students respond to their style of delivering economics content.

Professors try to help students make sense of the world and become productive and educated citizens. As involved citizens, students have the privilege of voting, and such an act requires them to consider how a political candidate’s view on economics may play out in funding community-based organizations to which they refer clients. Economists from multiple perspectives will want to consider using this book for majors and nonmajors alike. Suffice it to say, the authors have delivered a comprehensive, readable book that has everything you require to use economic terminology correctly and discuss economic theory confidently, whether navigating a casual conversation or engaging with a legislator.

Lisa E. Cox, PhD, LCSW, MSW
Professor of Social Work and Gerontology
Stockton University Galloway Township, NJ