Public Investments, Private Investments and Class Gaps in Child Development

• In Event: 2403 - Mechanisms of Social Stratification

Abstract

There are large and growing socioeconomic divides in children’s well-being, and these inequalities are likely to be in part the product of significant class gaps in “parental investments” of money and time in children. Public investments in children/families may reduce class inequality in children’s development through direct positive effects on children and, potentially, by affecting parents’ behavior and practices. However, our understanding of the state-level spending context within the U.S. is limited. In addition, there is limited evidence on how public and private investments interact to reduce or increase class inequality in child development. This paper will use newly assembled administrative data over a 25 year period, linked to individual-level data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, in order to ask: (1) Does state-level public spending on children/families reduce class inequality in child development? and (2) How does private investment of money and time mediate any such reduction?

Authors

• Margot Jackson, Brown University

• Daniel J. Schneider, University of California-Berkeley