Abstract

This project examines how resource inequalities among children are affected by demographic transitions, including quantitative transformations in family size but also qualitative transformations in the context under which children are born (esp. the age, marital status, education, and employment of mothers).

Issue

Everyone who cares about inequality. More pragmatically, resource inequality in childhood affect later-life inequality in schooling, health, and income, so that tracking the trends in these inequalities make it possible to anticipate and possibly to remedy the inequalities in adulthood. The tools I am working on will also make it possible to assess the impact of specific policies in resorbing inequality.

Response

My research has bridged two distinct approaches that existed so far in the field. While they were each accurate in some sense, they missed part of the picture and confounded the overall assessment.

Impact

This work is still in the early stages but the anticipated socioeconomic benefits expected are two-fold. The first is that planners will be better able to anticipate the coming trends in inequality and remedy these. The other impact is that it becomes possible to evaluate specific government policies, especially those designed to affect behavior in the areas of reproduction and family formation.

Funding Sources

• Academic Programs Instructional Support (e.g., Institutional Challenge, Multicultural Scholars, Nat'l Needs, Hispanic Ed)

Collaborators

• None so far

Key Personnel

• N/A