The Two-Parent Privilege

Economist Tyler Cowen writes:

A new and great book, authored by Melissa S. Kearney of the University of Maryland. The subtitle is How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind, and here is one excerpt of the summary points:

Two-parent families are beneficial for children.
The class divide in marriage and family structure has exacerbated inequality and class gaps.
Places that have more two-parent families have higher rates of upward mobility.
Not talking about these facts is counterproductive.

The marshaled evidence is convincing, and I will be blogging more about this book. While some stiff competition is coming, this could be the most important economics and policy book of this year.

Maybe those conclusions are true, but I am skeptical about the evidence.

Correlation does not prove causation. Maybe the bad child outcome causes the parent divorce. Maybe inherited genes cause both.