Family
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Elizabeth Peters -
Sara McLanahan
Leaders: Elizabeth Peters, Sara McLanahan
The continuing decline in prime-age employment interacts with ongoing changes in the structure and composition of low-income families. The relevant trends here include (a) declining marriage rates and increasing cohabitation, (b) increases in nonmarital births and multi-partner fertility, and (c) rising noncustodial parenthood (especially for fathers). These developments all work to weaken the “family safety net” for poor children. In a precarious labor market, a second parent provides backup in difficult times (e.g., extra income, childcare), thus reducing the risks of poverty. The family safety net is in this sense weakening just as the labor market is becoming more precarious. Moreover, because some programs (e.g., EITC) provide higher benefits for custodial parents, the rise of noncustodial parenting undermines the capacity of the formal safety net to step in as the family safety net weakens. These and related changes in family structure have prompted a spate of policy proposals, some involving safety net reforms that accommodate the new family forms (e.g., incentivizing noncustodial parents to comply with child-support orders), and others addressing the underlying institutional changes themselves (e.g., increasing the availability of long-acting reversible contraceptives). The charge of the Family RG is to evaluate these proposals and to better understand how the safety net is adapting to changes in family structure. The following projects are a sampling of the research underway within this RG.
A new round of Fragile Families data collection: Under the leadership of Sara McLanahan, a new initiative to update the Fragile Families Study is underway, with a focus on adding administrative records, metabolic and immune markers, and measures of methylation.
Income and the developing brain: Does income support for families affect the brain function and development of infants? A new experiment will reveal all.
Measuring family complexity in the AOS: Will the American Opportunity Study (AOS) capture the rise of ever more complicated family forms? By linking tax, census, and birth records, the AOS should be up to the task.
Featured Examples
Family - CPI Research
| Title | Author | Media | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marriage Markets and Intermarriage: Exchange in First Marriages and Remarriages | Zhenchao Qian, Daniel T. Lichter |
Marriage Markets and Intermarriage: Exchange in First Marriages and RemarriagesAuthor: Zhenchao Qian, Daniel T. LichterPublisher: Demography Date: 04/2018 Drawing on data from the American Community Survey, we compare patterns of assortative mating in first marriages, remarriages, and mixed-order marriages. We identify a number of ascribed and achieved characteristics that are viewed as resources available for exchange, both as complements and substitutes. We apply conditional logit models to show how patterns of assortative mating among never-married and previously married persons are subject to local marriage market opportunities and constraints. The results reveal that previously married individuals “cast a wider net”: spousal pairings are more heterogamous among remarriages than among first marriages. Marital heterogamy, however, is reflected in systematic evidence of trade-offs showing that marriage order (i.e., status of being never-married) is a valued trait for exchange. Never-married persons are better positioned than previously married persons to marry more attractive marital partners, variously measured (e.g., highly educated partners). Previously married persons—especially women—are disadvantaged in the marriage market, facing demographic shortages of potential partners to marry. Marriage market constraints take demographic expression in low remarriage rates and in heterogamous patterns of mate selection in which previously married partners often substitute other valued characteristics in marriage with never-married persons. |
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| State of the Union 2018: Policy | Marianne Cooper, Shelley J. Correll |
State of the Union 2018: PolicyAuthor: Marianne Cooper, Shelley J. CorrellPublisher: Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality Date: 03/2018 The ongoing decline in the gender wage gap and many other types of gender inequality slowed down or stalled entirely in the 1990s. Amid inaction by the federal government, some state and local governments have pursued policies to reduce gender inequality, such as raising the minimum wage and guaranteeing paid leave. Efforts by private organizations to address gender inequality often focus on reducing stereotypic biases, delivering unconscious or implicit bias training, or formalizing the employee evaluation process. |
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| Marriage, Labor Supply and the Dynamics of the Social Safety Net | Hamish Low, Costas Meghir, Luigi Pistaferri, Alessandra Voena |
Marriage, Labor Supply and the Dynamics of the Social Safety NetAuthor: Hamish Low, Costas Meghir, Luigi Pistaferri, Alessandra VoenaPublisher: NBER Date: 02/2018 The 1996 PRWORA reform introduced time limits on the receipt of welfare in the United States. We use variation by state and across demographic groups to provide reduced form evidence showing that such limits led to a fall in welfare claims (partly due to “banking” benefits for future use), a rise in employment, and a decline in divorce rates. We then specify and estimate a life-cycle model of marriage, labor supply and divorce under limited commitment to better understand the mechanisms behind these behavioral responses, carry out counterfactual analysis with longer run impacts and evaluate the welfare effects of the program. Based on the model, which reproduces the reduced form estimates, we show that among low educated women, instead of relying on TANF, single mothers work more, more mothers remain married, some move to relying only on food stamps and, in ex-ante welfare terms, women are worse off. |
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| The Kids Are All Right | Janet M. Currie |
The Kids Are All RightAuthor: Janet M. CurriePublisher: Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality Date: 01/2018 In this article, we pose the following question: Has the overall set of changes to the safety net since PRWORA improved outcomes for children? To answer that question, we look at several measures of child well-being—mortality rates, teen pregnancy, drug use, and high school graduation rates—and find that across all these measures, poor children are much better off today. |
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| The Unsuccessful Family Experiment | Daniel T. Lichter |
The Unsuccessful Family ExperimentAuthor: Daniel T. LichterPublisher: Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality Date: 01/2018 For those who believe that the 1996 welfare reform bill was mainly oriented toward promoting work, it might be surprising to learn that the bill begins with this line: “Marriage is the foundation of a successful society.” The law provided money for states to implement initiatives promoting healthy marriages. The specifics were left to the states, but possibilities included public advertising campaigns on the value of healthy marriages, marital skills training, and divorce reduction programs. My question in this article is simple: Did this social experiment work? Did the law promote marriage, foster healthy relationships, and reduce nonmarital fertility? To answer this question, I look at trends in marriage, cohabitation, and nonmarital fertility. |
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family - CPI Affiliates
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Ron Haskins |
Cabot Family Chair in Economic Studies, Co-Director, Center on Children and Families |
The Brookings Institution |
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Maya Rossin-Slater |
Associate Professor of Health Research and Policy |
Stanford University |
Pages
Family - Other Research
| Title | Author | Media | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Incarceration Spillovers in Criminal and Family Networks | Manudeep Bhuller, Gordon B. Dahl, Katrine V. Løken, Magne Mogstad |
Incarceration Spillovers in Criminal and Family NetworksAuthor: Manudeep Bhuller, Gordon B. Dahl, Katrine V. Løken, Magne MogstadPublisher: NBER Date: 08/2018 Using quasi-random assignment of criminal cases to judges, we estimate large incarceration spillovers in criminal and brother networks. When a defendant is sent to prison, there are 51 and 32 percentage point reductions in the probability his criminal network members and younger brothers will be charged with a crime, respectively, over the ensuing four years. Correlational evidence misleadingly finds small positive effects. These spillovers are of first order importance for policy, as the network reductions in future crimes committed are larger than the direct effect on the incarcerated defendant. |
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| Children and the Elderly: Wealth Inequality Among America’s Dependents | Christina M. Gibson-Davis, Christine Percheski |
Children and the Elderly: Wealth Inequality Among America’s DependentsAuthor: Christina M. Gibson-Davis, Christine PercheskiPublisher: Demography Date: 06/2018 Life cycle theory predicts that elderly households have higher levels of wealth than households with children, but these wealth gaps are likely dynamic, responding to changes in labor market conditions, patterns of debt accumulation, and the overall economic context. Using Survey of Consumer Finances data from 1989 through 2013, we compare wealth levels between and within the two groups that make up America’s dependents: the elderly and child households (households with a resident child aged 18 or younger). Over the observed period, the absolute wealth gap between elderly and child households in the United States increased substantially, and diverging trends in wealth accumulation exacerbated preexisting between-group disparities. Widening gaps were particularly pronounced among the least-wealthy elderly and child households. Differential demographic change in marital status and racial composition by subgroup do not explain the widening gap. We also find increasing wealth inequality within child households and the rise of a “parental 1 %.” During a time of overall economic growth, the elderly have been able to maintain or increase their wealth, whereas many of the least-wealthy child households saw precipitous declines. Our findings suggest that many child households may lack sufficient assets to promote the successful flourishing of the next generation. |
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| The Production of Inequalities within Families and Across Generations: The Intergenerational Effects of Birth Order and Family Size on Educational Attainment | Kieron Barclay, Torkild Lyngstad, Dalton Conley |
The Production of Inequalities within Families and Across Generations: The Intergenerational Effects of Birth Order and Family Size on Educational AttainmentAuthor: Kieron Barclay, Torkild Lyngstad, Dalton ConleyPublisher: NBER Date: 04/2018 There has long been interest in the extent to which effects of social stratification extend and persist across generations. We take a novel approach to this question by asking whether birth order and sibling group size in the parental generation influences the educational attainment of their children. To address this question we use Swedish population data on cohorts born 1960-1982. To study the effects of parental birth order and family size we apply a cousin fixed effects design and exploit information on twin births in the parents generation. Relative to having a first-born mother, having a second-born or fifth-born mother is associated with educational attainment at age 30 being 4% and 8% of a standard deviation lower, respectively. After adjusting for attained parental education and social class, the parental birth order effect is heavily attenuated. Nevertheless, we do find that children who share the same birth order and gender as their parents attain slightly more education, and this is particularly pronounced when the parents have higher levels of education themselves. We do not find clear or consistent evidence for parental sibling group size effects. Overall our results suggest that birth order and family size effects operate through a Markovian process of transmission. |
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| Subsidized Housing and the Transition to Adulthood | Yana Kucheva |
Subsidized Housing and the Transition to AdulthoodAuthor: Yana KuchevaPublisher: Demography Date: 04/2018 Despite abundant evidence about the effect of children’s socioeconomic circumstances on their transition to adulthood, we know much less about the effect of social policy programs aimed at poor families with children in facilitating how and when children become adults. This issue is particularly important for the U.S. federal subsidized housing program given its long history of placing subsidized units in some of the poorest and most racially segregated neighborhoods. Using counterfactual causal methods that adjust for the length of receipt of subsidized housing, I estimate the effect of subsidized housing on teenage parenthood, household formation, and educational attainment. I find that the subsidized housing program has either null or positive effects on the transition to adulthood and that these effects vary by both race and gender. These results underscore the importance of considering whether social programs have differential effects on the life chances of individuals based on both race and gender. |
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| Marriage, Family Structure, and Maternal Employment Trajectories | Christine Percheski |
Marriage, Family Structure, and Maternal Employment TrajectoriesAuthor: Christine PercheskiPublisher: Social Forces Date: 03/2018 Previous studies of maternal employment have focused on marital status differences, but the rise in nonmarital cohabiting parenthood problematizes the simple dichotomy between married and unmarried mothers. Theory and previous research yield mixed predictions as to whether cohabiting mothers’ employment will more closely resemble that of married mothers or lone unmarried mothers. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, I examine how maternal employment varies across family structures (married parents, cohabiting unmarried parents, and lone unmarried mothers) in the five years after a birth for mothers living in urban areas in the United States. Descriptive statistics show few differences in maternal employment patterns by family structure. Controlling for human capital, however, I find that cohabiting mothers return to work earlier and work more than married mothers. Cohabiting mothers and lone mothers show very similar employment patterns. Additionally, cohabiting mothers who later marry have employment trajectories that are similar to married mothers, whereas married mothers who divorce increase their employment hours. Family characteristics, partner characteristics, and gender attitudes do not explain employment differences between married and cohabiting mothers. I speculate that cohabiting mothers work more than married mothers as a hedge against economic deprivation given high union dissolution rates for cohabiting couples. |
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