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Title: Women's economic opportunities and the intra-household production of child human capital

Citation Type: Conference Paper

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: The economic opportunities of married women, relative to their husbands, have improved dramatically over the past half-century. This paper exploits variation in the relative demand for male and female labour during the Great Recession to estimate the effect of women's relative economic opportunities on the resources that parents allocate to children, particularly educational resources. Using data from the American Time Use survey (ATUS), over 2003-12, we find that variation in the household female-to-male wage ratio substantially affects parents' time with children and educational expenditures. Our results imply that the mean increase in the household female-to-male wage ratio observed over the last decade of 5 percentage points show have led to parents spending more than 15 additional minutes per week with their children, including 11 additional minutes in educational activities. The estimates response is even larger for families with young children, with parents estimated to spend an additional 45 minutes in educational activities, which may have significant implications for the intra-household production of child human capital.

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Authors: Bruins, Marianne

Conference Name: University of Melbourne: Faculty of Busniness and Economics

Publisher Location: Melbourne

Data Collections: IPUMS USA, IPUMS Time Use - ATUS

Topics: Education, Family and Marriage

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