Why 2 Parents Are Better Than One with Melissa Kearney

Reasonably Happy with Paul Ollinger

Kids who grow up in stable, two-parent homes are less likely to live in poverty, have behavioral problems, and get in trouble at school. They’re more likely to go to college, attain stable employment, achieve higher earnings, and to get married themselves. So reports Melissa Kearney in her new book The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind. A professor of Economics at University of Maryland, Melissa argues that single-parenthood makes economic autonomy more difficult to attain for parent and child alike. So if we want to address inequality, we must acknowledge that family structure contributes to it, even if the conclusions run counter to the prevailing societal notion that any family structure is as good as another. Put simply, if you want a more equal society, it’s time to recognize that equality starts at home. In addition to her faculty position, Melissa is also Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group and a non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution. She holds a BA in Economics from Princeton University and a PhD in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Find the book here. Learn more about Melissa on her website here.

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