From June 22nd through the 25th the Witherspoon Institute held its annual seminar on Marriage, the Family, and the Social Sciences, a program of the William A. Schreyer Summer Seminars. Each year this seminar brings together top graduate students and leading faculty in sociology, demography, psychology, and economics to discuss the contemporary state of marriage and family.

This year’s seminar was titled “The Family and the Market: How Do Marriage and Fertility Matter to the Economic Welfare of Business, the State, and the Market?” Participants discussed questions of the future of fertility rates in the United States compared to those in the rest of the West; how low fertility rates in East Asia and Europe may affect the economic performance of those countries; and the effect of family structure on men’s labor force participation and employee performance in American corporations. Students benefited from presentations filled with the most up-to-date statistical data and analysis; the faculty brought scholarly rigor and objectivity to discussions that in the public square can be difficult to navigate owing to their controversial nature.

Students were very grateful to have had the opportunity to hear from and interact closely with peers and top scholars in their particular field of expertise. The seminar’s faculty were in turn grateful for the opportunity to engage one another and the students in a subject of special interest to them. Exposure to the variety of disciplines in the social sciences from which faculty came—demography, sociology, family studies, economics, and political economy—also helped all participants to think outside of their particular niches and thereby get new ideas for their work. The faculty included Alicia Adsera (Princeton University), Jeffrey Dew (Utah State University), Samuel Gregg (The Acton Institute), E. Jeffrey Hill (Brigham Young University), Robert Lerman (Urban Institute/American University), Phillip Longman (New America Foundation), and S. Philip Morgan (Duke University).

The seminar was held on the campus of Princeton University. Participants came from the United States, Europe, Latin America, and East Asia. One student said of this year’s seminar, “Overall, the program was very helpful for me. . . . The speakers were well prepared for their presentations and the participants [in] the seminar were actively engaged in the discussion. I’d definitely recommend this program to my colleagues.”

The seminar was directed by Witherspoon senior fellow W. Bradford Wilcox. Wilcox is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, director of the National Marriage Project, and Director of the Witherspoon Institute’s Program on Marriage, Family, and Democracy. Wilcox's research focuses on marriage, cohabitation, and fatherhood. His work has been featured in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and numerous NPR stations. He received his PhD from Princeton University before returning to the University of Virginia, where he had earned his undergraduate degree.

The Witherspoon Institute is an independent research center that works to enhance public understanding of the moral foundations of free and democratic societies. Located in Princeton, New Jersey, the Institute promotes the application of fundamental principles of republican government and ordered liberty to contemporary problems through a variety of research and educational ventures. To support the Witherspoon Institute, please follow the contribution instructions or donate online via PayPal.