How to Close the Parenting Gap

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Across the world, rising economic inequality is influencing parenting choices, shaping the next generation and deepening social divisions. What can be done to narrow the parenting gap?.

Every parent wants their child to be happy and do well. But how they go about achieving this ambition varies enormously across time and place.

Economist Matthias Doepke is an expert in how economic forces shape parenting choices. He visits the RSA to share insights from his latest book, “Love, Money and Parenting” (co-authored with Fabrizio Zilibotti), which reveals how incentives and constraints—such as money, knowledge, and time - influence parenting practices, and what is considered good parenting in different countries.

In many societies, we are now witnessing a growing “parenting gap” in response to rising economic inequality, with rich families able to plough greater resources into their children’s social, cultural and educational development as the social mobility stakes grow higher.

At the RSA, Professor Doepke will show how investments in early childhood development and the design of education systems have a key role to play in efforts to narrow this gap, and achieve equality of opportunity for all.