Love, Money, and Parenting: How Economics Explains the Way We Raise Our Kids

The authors of Love, Money and Parenting analyze various parenting styles across time and geography through an economic lens. The general conclusion is that income inequality and chance of advancement leads to more helicopter-style parenting. In societies that are more egalitarian, children are able to run free and not given such high demands. 

With inequality, there is a strong desire to give children the advantages needed to succeed. This can differ across cultures. In China, everything depends on academic achievement and the focus is there. In America, academics and extra-circulars are needed to gain access to elite colleges. Thus, parents shuffle children off to many different activities.

Agrarian societies saw children as a key part of the family labor. Families were typically larger and expected to help out. There were typically different roles optimized for age and gender, but everyone helped out.  Even at the start of the industrial revolution, children could continue to help the family by working. Roles continued to be based on specific gender (often with those demanding more brawn for men, and more finesse for women.) There were also different systems of marriage and inheritance that would favor one gender over the other. Today, many roles are knowledge based and are fairly easily performed by males or females.  There is thus a greater demand for more equal treatment.

The authors present a large number of different statistical analyses to identify certain factors that would help identify the cause of parenting being a certain way. There is a little bit of combined analysis. However, it would be interesting to see more on "buckets" of traits that are impactful. It is interesting that there are such extreme differences in parenting style today. From a policy perspective, I think we often confuse cause and effect. We see an egalitarian society in Scandinavia, so we attempt to emulate their non-tracked permissive schooling on a local level. Alas, this merely lets a small group of students fall behind. The permissive schooling is the effect, not the cause. And furthermore, it extends in to the culture, both in and outside the school.