Conference on Public Policy and the Future of the Family

Out-of-wedlock children, single-parent families, absent fathers, and the government’s role in promoting marriage are among the topics to be debated at a conference on “Public Policy and the Future of the Family” on Friday, October 25, 2002, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm, at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.   The conference will be broadcast live at www.maxwell.syr.edu.  

Former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, now University Professor at the Maxwell School; Timothy M. Smeeding, Director of the Center for Policy Research; and Harvard Professor Emeritus Lee Rainwater will host the conference, which is sponsored by the Maxwell School and the Center for Policy Research; the MacArthur Foundation Network on the Family and the Economy; and the Russell Sage Foundation.  Presentations by leading experts from the government, academic, and nonprofit sectors will focus on explanations for the rise in out-of-wedlock child-bearing, the great increase in families with children and only one parent, and public policies designed to improve the well-being of both parents and children.

The conference will review the evidence on changes in the American family and competing explanations for them, for the USA in isolation and in a comparative context. In particular, panelists will discuss explanations for why families with children began to change from “married” to “not” in the 1950s and 1960s in the U. S. and elsewhere, and also the social and economic consequences of these changes.

Panelists will also discuss how U. S. public policy might address the issue of family structure.  Is “family policy” an appropriate role for government, for churches and communities, or for both?  What are our policy goals in various areas related to family structure, and what policy actions might help us to achieve these goals?  Promoting marriage, reducing out-of-wedlock childbirth, and providing greater support for mothers and children will all be debated.

Featured presenters, discussants and rapporteurs include:

David Ellwood, Harvard University

Nancy Folbre, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Frank Furstenberg, University of Pennsylvania

Irwin Garfinkel, Columbia University

Janet Gornick, City University of New York

Wade F. Horn, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Christopher Jencks, Harvard University

Kathleen Kiernan, London School of Social Policy & Political Science

Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Northwestern University

Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute

Sara McLanahan, Princeton University

John Palmer, Maxwell School

Samuel Preston, University of Pennsylvania

Isabel V. Sawhill, The Brookings Institution

Wendy Sigle-Rushton, CASE/STICERD

Douglas Wolf, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School.

Agenda

Public Policy and the Future of the Family

Friday, October 25, 2002

All Sessions Will Take Place in the Public Events Room
(2nd Floor of Eggers Hall)

For copies of conference papers, please contact Jill Leonhardt at 315-443-5492; jlleonha@maxwell.syr.edu.

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The Maxwell School of Syracuse University, founded in 1924, is the premier academic institution in the United States committed to civic leadership and careers in public and international affairs.  It is home to Syracuse University’s graduate social science departments and to numerous nationally recognized multidisciplinary programs in public policy and finance, international studies, and conflict resolution.  Maxwell’s graduate program in public administration – the first of its kind – is ranked consistently the best in the nation.

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Contact: Jill Leonhardt, director of communications, (315) 443-5492; jlleonha@maxwell.syr.edu.