In her recent book, What Money Can’t Buy, Susan Mayer finds that parental income is less important to children’s well-being than scholars have thought in the past. Mayer argues that most American families are now able to provide the basic necessities for their children, in part because government help has made it possible for even the most low-income children to have adequate food, housing, medical care, and other necessities. Under those circumstances additional income does not improve children’s future well-being by much. In her new research, Mayer turns from an emphasis on parents’ absolute level of income to the importance of their income relative to the income of others. In particular, she asks whether the increase in economic inequality over the last thirty years has hurt children’s educational attainment.

This is the first of a new series of seminars intended to improve public understanding of the implications for families and children of differences in economic circumstances, and to foster a more realistic appraisal of the likely effects of policies on families’ situations and incomes.