We Can Do Better: Study of Men’s Falling Income Blames Single Parents

Prominent labor economist casts negative light on single parenthood

Are you male and raised by a single mom? A new survey of existing research on male workers’ declining income suggests you have your parents to blame for your divergent fortunes. David H. Autor, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says the decline of two-parent households may be a significant reason for why women are beginning to outpace men in earnings. Only 63 percent of children lived in a household with two parents in 2010, down from 82 percent in 1970. In his analysis, Autor says there is growing evidence that sons raised by single mothers “appear to fair particularly poorly.” Men who are less successful are less attractive as partners, so some women are going the single motherhood route, in turn producing sons who are also less successful and less attractive as partners. “A vicious cycle may ensue,” wrote Autor and his co-author, Melanie Wasserman, “with the poor economic prospects of less educated males creating differentially large disadvantages for their sons, thus potentially reinforcing the development of the gender gap in the next generation.” Do you agree with this? Or is it a load of bull? (New York Times)

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