1. General overview of the care sector
2. Distinctive features of care work
3. Bargaining power and care penalties
4. Who benefits?
5. Critique of national income accounting 

This session focuses on conceptualizing care and care work and how care work is prone to under evaluation regardless of who performs it (although it is compounded by gender inequality). Also, how this affects the structure of wages in the paid labor market and invisibility of unpaid work. Main points covered include: 

• General overview of the care sector. Care sector usually includes 3 industries within the service sector (health, education and social services) plus the unpaid production, development and maintenance of human capabilities in families and communities.
• Distinctive feature of care work. Care work is a relational activity; it involves team production which makes it difficult to identify value added (e.g., many teachers during school years).
• Bargaining power and care penalties. Commitments to care usually reduce bargaining power (because of personal attachment). There is evidence on care penalties, e.g., time devoted to time care reduces lifetime earnings, pay is less for women in care industries compared to male peers.
• Who benefits? Employers since they don’t pay the full cost of producing labor; men because women have a larger share of care costs; the dependents cared for.
• Critique of national income accounting. (1) GDP is misleading, e.g., care counts if performed by an outsider, but not if parents care for the children; family spending on children is considered consumption; we value inputs in health/education but not the value of the long-term outputs (2) We need to challenge conventional GDP measures as the only indicator of well-being. Satellite accounts, even though not perfect, at least are putting a quantitative measure to unpaid work, natural capital, etc. This information is the starting point to macro and micro modeling.