- Answering Challenges to Advanced Economies
Sociologist Brad Wilcox and educational entrepreneur Ian Rowe join Steven Davis to discuss the role of fathers in helping children build happy, prosperous lives. American children from intact families – both parents present – do much better in school and have fewer disciplinary problems. Among intact families, black and white children have similar academic performance. Unfortunately, black children are much less likely to grow up in intact families. Brad and Ian share several ideas about how to strengthen fatherhood and how to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds choose better life paths.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Brad Wilcox is Melville Foundation Jefferson Scholars Foundation University Professor of Sociology and Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Future of Freedom Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute He studies marriage, fatherhood, and the impact of strong and stable families on men, women, and children.
Ian Rowe is a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation, and adoption. He is a cofounder of Vertex Partnership Academies, a network of virtues-based International Baccalaureate high schools inaugurated in the Bronx in 2022 and cofounder of the National Summer School Initiative.
Steven Davis is the Thomas W. and Susan B. Ford Senior Fellow and Director of Research at the Hoover Institution and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). He is a research associate of the NBER, IZA research fellow, elected fellow of the Society of Labor Economists, and a consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. He co-founded the Economic Policy Uncertainty project, the U.S. Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes, the Global Survey of Working Arrangements, the Survey of Business Uncertainty, and the Stock Market Jumps project. He also co-organizes the Asian Monetary Policy Forum, held annually in Singapore. Before joining Hoover, Davis was on the faculty at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, serving as both distinguished service professor and deputy dean of the faculty.
RELATED SOURCES
- Good Fathers, Flourishing Kids: The Importance of Fatherhood in Virginia by Brad Wilcox, Nicholas Zill, Richard Reeves, Ian Rowe, Gerard Robinson and Linda Malone-Colon, 2025.
- Get Married: Why Americans Should Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization by Brad Wilcox, 2024.
- Agency: The Four Point Plan (F.R.E.E.) for ALL Children to Overcome the Victimhood Narrative and Discover Their Pathway to Power by Ian Rowe, 2022.
- The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind by Melissa Kearney, 2023.
- “Where Is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States,” Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, Patrick Kline and Emmanuel Saez, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2014.
- “Why Marriage Survives: The Institution Has Adapted and Is Showing New Signs of Resilience,” Brad Wilcox, The Atlantic, 29 July 2025.
- Natonal Marriage Project, University of Virginia
- Vertex Partnership Academies
ABOUT THE SERIES
Each episode of Economics, Applied, a video podcast series, features senior fellow Steven Davis in conversation with leaders and researchers about economic developments and their ramifications. The goal is to bring evidence and economic reasoning to the table, drawing lessons for individuals, organizations, and society. The podcast also aims to showcase the value of individual initiative, markets, the rule of law, and sound policy in fostering prosperity and security.
For more information, visit hoover.org/podcasts/economics-applied.
