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Stephen Wu and Paul Hagstrom
Stephen Wu and Paul Hagstrom

A recent TIME magazine article titled “Study: Pregnancy Doesn’t Make Black Women Happier” focused on a study forthcoming in the Review of Economics of the Household by Professors of Economics Stephen Wu and Paul Hagstrom.  Published on March 27, the article reported that the study results revealed that “both white and Hispanic women reported boosts in happiness during pregnancy, while the black women did not. Even when the team looked at different income levels of the black women, they found no increase in happiness among those who were expecting over those who were not.

“In other words, whether they were low, middle or high income, black women showed no happiness bump from being pregnant. Similarly, black women showed no more satisfaction when Wu and Hagstrom compared them by education – since women with lower education tend to report less satisfaction with their lives in general than more educated women – or by age, since younger women may feel getting pregnant is more of a burden as they are trying to finish school or start a career.”

Wu, quoted in the article, said, “A lot of people say that when you find any correlation with race, that maybe race is a proxy for income or education levels. In this case it doesn’t seem to be.”

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