Investing in Children: Work, Education, and Social Policy in Two Rich Countries presents new research by leading scholars in Australia and the United States on economic factors that influence children's development and the respective social policies that the two nations have designed to boost human capital development.

The volume is organized around three major issues: parental employment, early childhood education and child care, and post-secondary education. All three issues are intimately linked with human capital development. Since both Australia and the United States have created extensive policies to address these three issues, there is potential for each to learn from the other's experiences and policies. This volume helps fulfill that potential.

The authors demonstrate that in both nations, the effects of low family income and income inequality emerge early in life and persist. However, policies that increase parental employment, augment family income, and promote quality preschool and postsecondary education can boost children's development and at least partially offset the negative developmental effects of family economic disadvantage.

Contributors represent top-flight research institutions from both nations. They include Rebekah Levine Coley, Caitlin McPherran, Patrick Wightman, Sheldon Danziger, Lyndall Strazdins, Megan Shipley, Liana Leach, Peter Butterworth, Frank Oberklaid, Sharon Goldfeld, Tim Moore, Matthew Gray, Jennifer Baxter, Mary E. Campbell, Robert Haveman, Barbara Wolfe, Anna Johnson, Rebecca Ryan, Kathleen Mullan Harris, and Hedwig Lee.