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.