IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/jecper/v7y1993i4p153-74.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Children's Prospects and Children's Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Haveman
  • Barbara Wolfe

Abstract

This paper offers some facts on trends in children's economic status in the United States as well as an economic perspective for thinking about public policy toward children. Throughout, we will attempt to make clear what is known and what is not known empirically about the relationships that are embodied in our perspective. We consider whether America is "underinvesting in children"; what type of investments in children would be best; to which children investments should be directed; and whether governments should provide the services directly or whether parents should be given the resources and incentives to better nurture their children. We examine the determinants of children's success and propose a course of action for investing in children.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 1993. "Children's Prospects and Children's Policy," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 153-174, Fall.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:7:y:1993:i:4:p:153-74
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/jep.7.4.153
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jep.7.4.153
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anne C. Case & Lawrence F. Katz, 1991. "The Company You Keep: The Effects of Family and Neighborhood on Disadvantaged Youths," NBER Working Papers 3705, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Hope Corman & Theodore J. Joyce & Michael Grossman, 1987. "Birth Outcome Production Function in the United States," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 22(3), pages 339-360.
    3. Browning, Martin, 1992. "Children and Household Economic Behavior," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 1434-1475, September.
    4. Robert H. Haveman & Barbara L. Wolfe, 1984. "Schooling and Economic Well-Being: The Role of Nonmarket Effects," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 19(3), pages 377-407.
    5. Robert J. Lampman & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1983. "Interfamily Transfers As Alternatives To Government Transfers To Persons," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 29(1), pages 45-66, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vignoles Anna F & Powdthavee Nattavudh, 2009. "The Socioeconomic Gap in University Dropouts," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 9(1), pages 1-36, April.
    2. David Madden, 2018. "Bridging the gaps: inequalities in children’s educational outcomes in Ireland," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 16(1), pages 103-122, March.
    3. Robert Haveman & Barbara Wolfe, 1994. "Economic Inactivity of Young Adults: An Intergenerational Analysis," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_107, Levy Economics Institute.
    4. Veronica Jacobsen & Nicholas Mays & Ron Crawford & Barbara Annesley & Paul Christoffel & Grant Johnston & Sid Durbin, 2002. "Investing in Well-being: An Analytical Framework," Treasury Working Paper Series 02/23, New Zealand Treasury.
    5. David S. Lyle, 2006. "Using Military Deployments and Job Assignments to Estimate the Effect of Parental Absences and Household Relocations on Children's Academic Achievement," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 24(2), pages 319-350, April.
    6. Nusrat Farah & Mukti P. Upadhyay, 2017. "How are school dropouts related to household characteristics? Analysis of survey data from Bangladesh," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 1268746-126, January.
    7. Assar Lindbeck, 1998. "Incentives in the Welfare State: Lessons for Would-be Welfare States," International Economic Association Series, in: Yair Mundlak (ed.), Contemporary Economic Issues, chapter 1, pages 3-24, Palgrave Macmillan.
    8. Assar Lindbeck, 1996. "Incentives in the Welfare-State," CESifo Working Paper Series 111, CESifo.
    9. Lindbeck , Assar, 1996. "Welfare-State Dynamics," Working Paper Series 474, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    10. Korenman, Sanders & Miller, Jane E. & Sjaastad, John E., 1995. "Long-term poverty and child development in the United States: Results from the NLSY," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 127-155.
    11. Wolter, Stefan C. & Coradi Vellacott, Maja, 2002. "Sibling Rivalry: A Look at Switzerland with PISA Data," IZA Discussion Papers 594, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Hofferth, Sandra L., 1995. "Caring for children at the poverty line," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 61-90.
    13. S. Korenman & J. E. Miller & J. E. Sjaastad, "undated". "Long- term poverty and child development in the United States: Results from the NLSY," Institute for Research on Poverty Discussion Papers 1044-94, University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
    14. Behrman, Jere R., 1996. "Measuring the effectiveness of schooling policies in developing countries: Revisiting issues of methodology," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 345-364, October.
    15. Pekkala, Sari, 2003. "Is Little Brother Nothing but Trouble?: Educational Attainment, Returns to Schooling and Sibling Structure," Discussion Papers 302, VATT Institute for Economic Research.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria De Paola & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2010. "Peer group effects on the academic performance of Italian students," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(17), pages 2203-2215.
    2. Michelle Sheran Sylvester, 2007. "The Career and Family Choices of Women: A Dynamic Analysis of Labor Force Participation, Schooling, Marriage and Fertility Decisions," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 10(3), pages 367-399, July.
    3. Aldieri, Luigi & Fiorillo, Damiano, 2015. "Private monetary transfers and altruism: An empirical investigation on Italian families," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-15.
    4. Schultz, T. Paul, 2009. "The Gender and Generational Consequences of the Demographic Transition and Population Policy: An Assessment of the Micro and Macro Linkages," Working Papers 71, Yale University, Department of Economics.
    5. Todd D. Gerarden & Richard G. Newell & Robert N. Stavins, 2017. "Assessing the Energy-Efficiency Gap," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1486-1525, December.
    6. Feng, Yao, 2011. "Local spillovers and learning from neighbors: Evidence from durable adoptions in rural China," MPRA Paper 33924, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Dmitriy Gorskiy, 2023. "The maternity capital and probability of second birth in Russia: Explaining the last 10 Years' fertility patterns," French Stata Users' Group Meetings 2023 30, Stata Users Group.
    8. Adnan Q. Khan & Steven F. Lehrer, 2013. "The Impact of Social Networks on Labour Market Outcomes: New Evidence from Cape Breton," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 39(s1), pages 1-24, May.
    9. Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave & Nancy E. Reichman, 2018. "Evolution of the Infant Health Production Function," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 6-47, July.
    10. Kien Le & My Nguyen, 2022. "The impacts of rainfall shocks on birth weight in Vietnam," Journal of Development Effectiveness, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 143-159, April.
    11. Garfield O. Blake, 2015. "Using Increases in Criminal Deportees from the US to Estimate the Effect of Crime on Economic Growth and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean," Laws, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-18, November.
    12. Cemal Eren Arbath & Quamral H. Ashraf & Oded Galor & Marc Klemp, 2018. "Diversity and Conflict," Working Papers 2018-6, Brown University, Department of Economics.
    13. Machikita, Tomohiro, 2006. "Are Job Networks Localized in a Developing Economy? Search Methods for Displaced Workers in Thailand," IDE Discussion Papers 84, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    14. Troske, Kenneth R. & Voicu, Alexandru, 2010. "Joint estimation of sequential labor force participation and fertility decisions using Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 150-169, January.
    15. Francesco Agostinelli & Matthias Doepke & Giuseppe Sorrenti & Fabrizio Zilibotti, 2020. "It Takes a Village: The Economics of Parenting with Neighborhood and Peer Effects," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2228, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    16. Cheal, David & Kampen, Karen, 1997. "Complementarity in the labor supply of husbands and wives," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 495-512.
    17. Eric Maurin & Julie Moschion, 2009. "The Social Multiplier and Labor Market Participation of Mothers," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 1(1), pages 251-272, January.
    18. Katherine M. O'Regan & John M. Quigley, 1996. "Teenage Employment and the Spatial Isolation of Minority and Poverty Households," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(3), pages 692-702.
    19. repec:zbw:rwidps:0002 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3t1fcs7p369jmaalnboqhpgknn is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Kelly Noonan & Nancy E. Reichman & Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave, 2007. "Prenatal drug use and the production of infant health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 16(4), pages 361-384, April.
    22. Geert Dhaene & Koen Jochmans, 2015. "Split-panel Jackknife Estimation of Fixed-effect Models," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(3), pages 991-1030.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:7:y:1993:i:4:p:153-74. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.