Changes in Family Structure and Economic Well-being in Twenty Nations

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Family Formation and Economic Well-being The goal of this project is to advance our understanding of relationships between family behaviors and economic well-being. To this end, we use comparable data from nearly two dozen industrialized countries to describe socioeconomic differentials (measured primarily by education) in family behaviors and to evaluate how particular family transitions are linked to economic well-being. We assess whether these relationships are primarily due to educational differences in the prevalence of particular family transitions (i.e., social selection) or to the consequences of family transitions for economic well-being. We also consider the extent to which observed differences across countries may depend on characteristics such as public policies or aggregate economic circumstances. The primary motivation for this study is evidence that growing socioeconomic differences in family behavior have contributed to increasing income inequality in the U.S. For example, the increasing concentration of family behaviors such as nonmarital childbearing and divorce among those with less education?and marital childbearing and stable marriages among those with more education?have been linked to growing differences in family income. These patterns may also have important implications for the well-being of children and the intergenerational transmission of advantage and disadvantage, given the importance of parental income for healthy child development. Despite the centrality of these issues to current family research and related policy discussions in the U.S., the lack of related cross-national comparative research has precluded evaluation of the extent to which increasing socioeconomic differentials in family behaviors represent a common pattern across industrialized countries (which may be perpetuating inequality), or whether this phenomenon is unique to the U.S. and hence represents another form of "American exceptionalism." By using data from a large number of industrialized countries covering a wide range of geographic, economic, political and social contexts (Northern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, East Asia, and Anglo-Saxon countries), this project will provide a comprehensive evaluation of the generality of observed patterns of family change and economic wellbeing in the U.S. Counterfactual analyses and decomposition tools allow for assessment of the extent to which cross-country differences reflect (a) educational differences in the prevalence of particular family transitions, and/or (b) differentials in linkages between specific family transitions and economic well-being. The use of innovative multilevel modeling techniques also allows for assessment of the extent to which cross-national differences are related to differences in public policies, inequality, and other theoretically-relevant factors measured at the country level. The broader impacts of this study include advancement of scientific understanding of the relationships between family transitions and subsequent economic well-being; broad, interdisciplinary dissemination of this new knowledge; development of international, collaborative research networks; and the enhancement of pre-doctoral training in comparative research methods. The cross-national comparative approach employed in this project is critical for understanding key sources of variation in the economic well-being of families and for evaluating the role of public policy in reducing inequality. Insights generated by this project are also important for understanding the generality of emerging patterns of family change and inequality in the U.S. and for the development of broader theories of family change and variation.