Love, Money, and Parenting: How Economics Explains the Way We Raise Our Kids

An international and historical look at how parenting choices change in the face of economic inequality

Love, Money, and Parenting investigates how economic forces shape how parents raise their children. In countries with increasing economic inequality, parents push harder to ensure their children have a path to security and success. In the United States, this force has transformed the hands-off parenting of the 60s and 70s into a frantic, overscheduled activity. Growing inequality has also resulted in an increasing parenting gap between richer and poorer families, raising the disturbing prospect of diminished social mobility. Drawing from the experiences of countries of high and low economic inequality, Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti discuss how changes to public policy can contribute to the ideal of equal opportunity for all.