It is widely recognized that children who grow up without a biological
parent do worse, on average, than other children. However, because having
a single parent is highly correlated with many other socioeconomic
disadvantages, the negative outcomes might be caused by something beyond
the parent's absence. Econometric tests using a variety of background
controls and parental death as an exogenous cause of absence,
show little evidence that a parent's presence during childhood affects economic
welt being in adulthood. The two exceptions are that living without
a mother impacts girls' cognitive performance while having a father die
lowers sons' chances of marriage