When Children Rule: Parenting in Modern Families

Working Paper No. 23087 During the 20th century there was a secular transformation within American families from a household dominated by the father to a more egalitarian one in which the wife and the children have been empowered. This transformation coincided with two major economic and demographic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNBER Working Paper Series p. 23087
Main Authors Galiani, Sebastian, Staiger, Matthew, Torrens, Gustavo
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc 01.01.2017
Subjects
20th century
Children & youth
Competition
Consumption
Corporal punishment
Earnings
Economic opportunities
Economic theory
Egalitarianism
Equilibrium
Families & family life
Family income
Family planning
Households
Labor market
Parents & parenting
Siblings
Studies
Trends
Wives
Women
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Summary:Working Paper No. 23087 During the 20th century there was a secular transformation within American families from a household dominated by the father to a more egalitarian one in which the wife and the children have been empowered. This transformation coincided with two major economic and demographic changes, namely the increase in economic opportunities for women and a decline in family size. To explain the connection between these trends and the transformation in family relationships we develop a novel model of parenting styles that highlights the importance of competition within the family. The key intuition is that the rise in relative earnings of wives increased competition between spouses for the love and affection of their children while the decline in family size reduced competition between children for resources from their parents. The combined effect has empowered children within the household and allowed them to capture an increasing share of the household surplus over the past hundred years.
ISSN:0898-2937
DOI:10.3386/w23087