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

Description

An international and historical look at how parenting choices change in the face of economic inequality Parents everywhere want their children to be happy and do well. Yet how parents seek to achieve this ambition varies enormously. For instance, American and Chinese parents are increasingly authoritative and authoritarian, whereas Scandinavian parents tend to be more permissive. Why?Love, Money, and Parentinginvestigates how economic forces and growing inequality shape how parents raise their children. From medieval times to the present, and from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Sweden to China and Japan, Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti look at how economic incentives and constraints--such as money, knowledge, and time--influence parenting practices and what is considered good parenting in different countries. Through personal anecdotes and original research, Doepke and Zilibotti show that in countries with increasing economic inequality, such as the United States, parents push harder to ensure their children have a path to security and success. Economics has transformed the hands-off parenting of the 1960s 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 and fewer opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In nations with less economic inequality, such as Sweden, the stakes are less high, and social mobility is not under threat. Doepke and Zilibotti discuss how investments in early childhood development and the design of education systems factor into the parenting equation, and how economics can help shape policies that will contribute to the ideal of equal opportunity for all. Love, Money, and Parentingpresents an engrossing look at the economics of the family in the modern world. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 5 Copyright......Page 6 Dedication......Page 7 Contents......Page 9 Preface......Page 11 Introduction......Page 17 PART ONE Raising Kids in the Age of Inequality......Page 35 CHAPTER ONE The Economics of Parenting Style......Page 37 CHAPTER TWO The Rise of Helicopter Parents......Page 67 CHAPTER THREE Parenting Styles around the Contemporary World......Page 101 CHAPTER FOUR Inequality, Parenting Style, and Parenting Traps......Page 141 PART TWO Raising Kids throughout History......Page 173 CHAPTER FIVE From Stick to Carrot: The Demise of Authoritarian Parenting......Page 175 CHAPTER SIX Boys versus Girls: The Transformation of Gender Roles......Page 201 CHAPTER SEVEN Fertility and Child Labor: From Large to Small Families......Page 231 CHAPTER EIGHT Parenting and Class: Aristocratic versus Middle-Class Values......Page 268 PART THREE How Policy Affects the Way We Raise Our Kids......Page 289 CHAPTER NINE The Organization of the School System......Page 291 CHAPTER TEN The Future of Parenting......Page 322 Notes......Page 339 Index......Page 375 空白页面......Page 4