Does Growing up with a Parent Absent Really Hurt?

Kevin Lang and Jay Zagorsky

Journal of Human Resources, 2001, vol. 36, issue 2, 253-273

Abstract: It is widely recognized that children who grow up without a biological parent do worse, on average, than other children. However, because having a single parent is highly correlated with many other socioeconomic disadvantages, the negative outcomes might be caused by something beyond the parent's absence. Econometric tests using a variety of background controls and parental death as an exogenous cause of absence, show little evidence that a parent's presence during childhood affects economic well being in adulthood. The two exceptions are that living without a mother impacts girls' cognitive performance while having a father die lowers sons' chances of marriage.

Date: 2001
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