Susan Mayer on What Money Can't Buy

EconTalk

Library of Economics and Liberty

Ethics, Philosophy, Economics, Books, Science, Business, Courses, Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Interviews, Education, History

4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2019

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sociologist Susan Mayer of the University of Chicago talks about her book What Money Can't Buy with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Mayer reports on her research which found that giving poor parents money had little measured effect on improving the lives of their children. She emphasizes the importance of accurately understanding the challenges facing children in poverty if the goal is to actually help them. She concludes that there is no simple way to help the most vulnerable children and that strategies to help them must recognize this reality. The conversation ends with a discussion of the potential role of education and parenting practices to help children in poor families.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts, of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:12.0	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast,
0:17.0	and find links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.0	You'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going back to 2006.
0:27.0	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org. We'd love to hear from you.
0:33.0	Today is October 11, 2019, and my guest is sociologist and author, Susan Mayer,
0:38.0	Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy in the College.
0:44.0	Her research and writing look at a broad set of issues related to poverty and education,
0:49.0	or topic for day, is her 1997 book, What Money Can't Buy, Family Income, and Children's Life Chances.
0:57.0	Susan, welcome to Econ Talk.
0:59.0	Thank you.
1:00.0	This is a very provocative and careful empirical exploration of a set of incredibly important issues
1:08.0	that we all would like to understand better, particularly for policymaking.
1:12.0	It gets at the heart of what causes poverty, how best to help children who grow up in poor households.
1:18.0	Let's start with the question at the center of the book.
1:20.0	Does giving parents money help their children?
1:23.0	Well, even today, it's not a simple answer.
1:29.0	Giving the very, very poorest, most deprived parents money to feed their children
1:35.0	and provide basic material well-being can help their children.
1:39.0	But in general, simple transfers of money is probably not the most effective way
1:47.0	to solve the problems that we associate with growing up in poor families.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Library of Economics and Liberty, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Library of Economics and Liberty and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.