Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Nina Bandelj delivers a keynote lecture at the 2023 Markets & Society conference on the social life of money for children. Drawing on research about what she calls the “parenting economy,” she shows that parents increasingly treat children as human capital investments, using savings plans, loans, and educational spending to secure their futures. Bandelj argues that the financialization of family life reflects parental pressures and social inequality, calling for children to be seen as a shared public responsibility rather than private investments.
Dr. Nina Bandelj (https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5053) is Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine and the President of the Sociological Research Association. Her articles have been published in top discipline and specialty journals such as the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Theory and Society, and Socio-Economic Review. She has published various books, including Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691270043/overinvested?srsltid=AfmBOopStbQYLNXb0BFs5qYj22nlwvxUsWeEVo5qYAyZcEbtFOjaxrpK) (Princeton University Press, forthcoming), Money Talks: Explaining How Money Really Works (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691168685/money-talks?srsltid=AfmBOop0w9JSUEoD5xV2qD_7LK2teYiP1CAxHq3aKD9v4oJBCc1sBy8r) (Princeton University Press, 2017) coauthored with Frederick Wherry and Viviana Zelizer), and Socialism Vanquished, Socialism Challenged: Eastern Europe and China, 1989-2009 (global.oup.com/academic/product/socialism-vanquished-socialism-challenged-9780199895960?cc=us&lang=en&) (Oxford university Press, 2012) coedited with Dorothy Solinger.
**This lecture was recorded October 22, 2023 at the second annual Markets & Society conference.
If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments (mercatus.org/hayekprogram/virtual-sentiments) is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today!
Follow the Hayek Program (twitter.com/hayekprogram) on Twitter: @HayekProgram
Follow the Mercatus Center (twitter.com/mercatus) on Twitter: @mercatus
CC Music: Twisterium
On this episode of the Hayek Program Podcast, Nina Bandelj delivers a keynote lecture at the 2023 Markets & Society conference on the social life of money for children. Drawing on research about what she calls the “parenting economy,” she shows that parents increasingly treat children as human capital investments, using savings plans, loans, and educational spending to secure their futures. Bandelj argues that the financialization of family life reflects parental pressures and social inequality, calling for children to be seen as a shared public responsibility rather than private investments.
Dr. Nina Bandelj (https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=5053) is Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine and the President of the Sociological Research Association. Her articles have been published in top discipline and specialty journals such as the American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Theory and Society, and Socio-Economic Review. She has published various books, including Overinvested: The Emotional Economy of Modern Parenting (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691270043/overinvested?srsltid=AfmBOopStbQYLNXb0BFs5qYj22nlwvxUsWeEVo5qYAyZcEbtFOjaxrpK) (Princeton University Press, forthcoming), Money Talks: Explaining How Money Really Works (https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691168685/money-talks?srsltid=AfmBOop0w9JSUEoD5xV2qD_7LK2teYiP1CAxHq3aKD9v4oJBCc1sBy8r) (Princeton University Press, 2017) coauthored with Frederick Wherry and Viviana Zelizer), and Socialism Vanquished, Socialism Challenged: Eastern Europe and China, 1989-2009 (global.oup.com/academic/product/socialism-vanquished-socialism-challenged-9780199895960?cc=us&lang=en&) (Oxford university Press, 2012) coedited with Dorothy Solinger.
**This lecture was recorded October 22, 2023 at the second annual Markets & Society conference.
If you like the show, please subscribe, leave a 5-star review, and tell others about the show! We're available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Check out our other podcast from the Hayek Program! Virtual Sentiments (mercatus.org/hayekprogram/virtual-sentiments) is a podcast in which political theorist Kristen Collins interviews scholars and practitioners grappling with pressing problems in political economy with an eye to the past. Subscribe today!
Follow the Hayek Program (twitter.com/hayekprogram) on Twitter: @HayekProgram
Follow the Mercatus Center (twitter.com/mercatus) on Twitter: @mercatus
CC Music: Twisterium
