Two Parents or One? What It Means for Children and Society | Economics, Applied | Steven Davis and Melissa Kearney | Hoover Institution

It’s easier for two parents to provide the time, attention, love, and financial resources that help children thrive and lead successful lives than it is for a single parent. Yet the share of American children who live with two parents has plummeted in recent decades. The decline is especially steep outside of the college-educated class. Why are so many parents now raising children outside of marriage? What are the consequences for children and society? How do the benefits of two parents play out across racial and ethnic groups? Do the effects differ between boys and girls? What, if anything, can we do so that more children reap the benefits of two-parent households? Tune in, as Melissa Kearney joins Steven Davis to discuss The Two-Parent Privilege, her highly insightful book on these issues.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Melissa Kearny is a chaired professor of economics at the University of Maryland, research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group, non-resident Senior Fellow at The Brookings Institution, and a highly accomplished researcher. She holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Among many other roles, she serves on the editorial boards of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy and the Journal of Economic Literature, and she is on the board of the Notre Dame Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities and a scholar affiliate with the MIT Abdul Jameel Poverty Action Lab.

Steven J. Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is a research associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research, consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, advisor to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, past editor of the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, and an elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the US Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Previously, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.

RELATED RESOURCES:

• The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind
• Social Poverty: Low-Income Parents and the Struggle for Family and Community Ties
• The Trouble with Boys: Social Influences and the Gender Gap in Disruptive Behavior
• Male Earnings, Marriageable Men, and Non-Marital Fertility: Evidence from the Fracking Boom
• Collateralized Marriage
• Melissa Kerny personal website