Households functioning as an investment institution.

Abstract

In theory, this study aims at analyzing how, in today’s Russian society, the economic institution of the household responds to the “challenges” associated with modernization in the broadest sense (development of a managed market, “blurring” of the family, flexibilization of employment, electronic informatization, etc.). Although, in the economic theory, since the XIX century, it has been accepted to distinguish “households” as one of the three main types of economic entities, sociological studies of the XX-XXI centuries point to the growing atomization of individuals, as the state and firms partially “intercept” many of the traditional functions of the family (in particular, insurance, distribution of information, and education of children).