In this 1987 presidential address to the American Economic Association the author explores the contributions of the field of family economics to macroeconomic analysis. The focus is on family behavior as an active endogenous factor that both affects and is affected by the evolution of the economy. Much of the time is spent on long-term economic growth although I also discuss short and long cycles in economic activity and the interaction between overlapping generations through Social Security transmission of inequality and in other ways....Many conclusions in these and presumably other macro areas change radically when family choices get the attention they deserve. (EXCERPT)