The Dispatch Podcast Worried About Inequality? Fix Marriage.
Oct 9, 2023
Economics professor Melissa Kearney discusses her book on the decline of marriage in America, its impact on inequality, and controversial policy matters. Topics include the relationship between marriage, education, and income inequality, trends in marriage and their impact on children, and the surprising findings of a study on localized fracking booms and birth rates.
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Marriage Has Become A Class Divide
- Marriage rates remain high (around 70%) for college-educated women but have fallen dramatically for women without a degree.
- This class split in family structure amplifies inequality because college-educated kids keep the two-parent advantage.
Marriage As A Capstone Event
- Americans are marrying later and marriages have become more selective and durable, with divorce rates down conditional on marriage.
- Marriage now often functions as a capstone chosen after economic and personal stability is achieved.
Marriage Pools Key Resources
- Kearney frames marriage economically as pooling money, time, and emotional bandwidth between two adults.
- About half the outcome gap for kids between married and single-parent homes is explained by higher household income alone.