Matthias Doepke How Can Economics Help Us Explain Parenting?
Matthias Doepke is Professor of Economics at Northwestern University (USA). He has previously worked at the University of Munich and UCLA. Doepke’s main research interests include economic growth and development, family economics and the redistributional effects of inflation. Holding Research Fellowships from the Center for Economic Policy Research and Germany’s IZA (Institut zur Zukunft der Arbeit), Doepke is also a Consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Editor of the Review of Economic Dynamics, Doepke’s book (with Fabrizio Zilibotti), Love, Money, and Parenting: How Economics Explains the Way We Raise Our Kids, was published by Princeton University Press in 2019.
Area of Research
Economic Growth, Development Economics, Political Economy, Family Economics, Demographic Economics
since 2012
Professor
Northwestern University, Illinois
Department of Economics
2008-2012
Associate Professor
Northwestern University, Illinois
Department of Economics
2008-2011
Affiliate Professor
Ludwig Maximilian University Munich (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)
2006-2009
Associate Professor
University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Economics
2000-2006
Assistant Professor
University of California, Los Angeles
Department of Economics
2000
Ph.D. in Economics
University of Chicago
1995-1996
Visiting Graduate Student
University of Minnesota
1995
Diplom in Volkswirtschaftslehre
Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
- Editor, Review of Economic Dynamics
- Associate Editor, American Economic Review
- Associate Editor, Journal of Economic Growth
- Associate Editor, Journal of Demographic Economics
Prizes
- Excellence in Refereeing Award, American Economic Review (2013, 2014)
- Annual Referee Prize, the Economic Journal (2013)
Fellowships
- Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2005-2007)
- Frank F. Knight Fellowship (1996-2000)
- University of Chicago Fellowship (1996-2000)
- Fulbright Fellowship (1995-1996)
- National Science Foundation, 2013-2017, “Inflation and Redistribution: Research on the Origins and Implications of Money as a Unit of Account,” (grant SES-1260961)
- World Bank Gender Action Plan, 2009-2010, Short-Term Consultant for project “Does Female Empowerment Promote Economic Development?”
- National Science Foundation, 2008-2011, “Women's Rights and Economic Development: A Theoretical Framework” (grant SES-0820409)
- etc.
The choices that we make as parents are among the most important that we make in our lifetimes: whether to have children, how many children to have, what form of education should we provide. In this video, MATTHIAS DOEPKE explains how the economic method can help us to understand the choices that parents make. Economic factors clearly constrain parental choice and, drawing on the concept of parenting style developed in psychology, the research demonstrates a striking degree of alignment between different parenting styles and the degree of economic inequality in a society. Doepke’s work on the economics of parenting is highly relevant not only to how we might improve social mobility but also to the design of education systems and labor markets.
