When Children Rule: Parenting in Modern Families

Sebastian Galiani, Matthew Staiger and Gustavo Torrens

No 23087, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: 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.

JEL-codes: J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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