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Children and Parental Labor Supply

Paper Session

Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM (CST)

New Orleans Marriott, Preservation Hall Studio 4
Hosted By: Society of Government Economists
  • Chair: Natalia Emanuel, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Childcare Access and its Effects on Child Penalties, Parental Care Time and Quality – Time-Diary Evidence from the UK, Denmark and Korea

Nabanita Datta Gupta
,
Aarhus University
Kristian Stamp Hedeager
,
Rockwool Foundation Research Unit
Youngsook Kim
,
Korean Women's Development Institute
Leslie S. Stratton
,
Virginia Commonwealth University

Abstract

Child penalties on maternal labour supply are substantial and ubiquitous, and tied to family policies governing leave and childcare provision. We compare the effects of non-parental care on mothers’ and fathers’ employment, hours worked and childcare time in UK, Denmark and Korea. The three settings differ in terms of the share of women in the workforce, parental leave provision, access, quality and affordability of childcare and levels of gender equality. We show that having non-parental care for children less than 10 significantly increases the probability mothers work by 20 pp in Denmark, 25 pp in UK, and 37 pp in Korea. Having non-parental care also increases the probability fathers work but the effects are much smaller and not always significant. On the intensive margin, access to non-parental care has a significant positive effect on hours worked only for mothers in Korea. Next, we leverage time-diary data to examine time spent on childcare on both weekdays and weekends, and find that access to non-parental care significantly reduces the total childcare time of mothers in all three countries. However, while there is no significant reduction in mothers’ quality time (time spent reading, teaching, playing with the child) in Denmark, in UK and in Korea quality time falls during the week, but either does not fall or falls less during the weekend. Fathers’ childcare time, total or quality time, is generally unaffected by the availability of childcare in all three countries. Where effects are significant, we test for coefficient stability to potential omitted variable bias (by way of the Oster method). Our results show that in all settings non-parental care increases mothers’ labour supply and reduces total time spent with children and, in some but not all settings, also quality time. Further analyses will explore the reasons behind these country differences.

Parenthood and Health: Gender Differences in the Impact of a First Birth

Olivia J. Healy
,
Cornell University
Jennifer A. Heissel
,
Naval Postgraduate School

Abstract

The impacts of parenthood do not accrue equally to men and women. Robust evidence shows a first birth weakens mothers’ labor market attachment and drives persistent gender gaps in earnings. However, little research explores gender differences in the effect of parenthood on non-labor market outcomes. This study considers whether and how parenthood impacts mothers’ vs. fathers’ health outcomes, including healthcare utilization, self-reported mental health, and substance use. Our findings on gender differences in parental health are important in their own right; they also provide insight into a possible mechanism driving gender disparities in parental work outcomes.

Our analytic strategy isolates the effect of childbirth on health outcomes, separately for men and women. We estimate event study models around a first birth and use a matching strategy to approximate counterfactual trends, helping to address bias in staggered event study designs (see Baker, Larcker, & Wang, 2021). Our data include healthcare claims records for all active-duty Army and Navy servicemembers from 2013-2019. We also use data on self-reported prescription drug use, substance use, and mental health from 2013-2017. We estimate week-by-week and month-by-month health impacts of the transition to parenthood.

Preliminary analyses show declines in mothers’ outpatient doctor visits for drug/alcohol use and mental health. Declines in the frequency and number of visits begin during pregnancy and continue through birth. If declines reflect an incapacitation effect (e.g., time constraints), we expect similar but more muted impacts on fathers who likely also face a degree of incapacitation. If declines reflect the biological consequences of pregnancy/childbirth, we expect few to no impacts on fathers. Future analyses will also estimate impacts on self-reported substance use/mental health, overall doctors’ visits, and prescription drug treatment. We will then link these changes to promotion and retention outcomes in our setting.

Who is Doing the Chores and Childcare in Dual-earner Couples during the COVID-19 Era of Working from Home?

Sabrina Wulff Pabilonia
,
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Victoria Vernon
,
SUNY-Empire State College

Abstract

In 2020–21, parents’ work-from-home days increased three-and-a-half-fold following the initial COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns compared to 2015–19. At the same time, many schools offered virtual classrooms and daycares closed, increasing the demand for household-provided childcare. Using weekday workday time diaries from American Time Use Survey and looking at parents in dual-earner couples, we examine parents’ time allocated to paid work, chores, and childcare in the COVID-19 era by the couple’s joint work location arrangements. We determine the work location of the respondent directly from their diary and predict the partner’s work-from-home status. Parents working from home alone spent more time on childcare compared to their counterparts working on-site, though only mothers worked fewer paid hours. When both parents worked from home compared to on-site, mothers and fathers maintained their paid hours and spent more time on childcare, though having a partner also working from home reduced child supervision time. On the average day, parents working from home did equally more household chores, regardless of their partner’s work-from-home status; however, on the average school day, only fathers working from home alone increased their household chores compared to their counterparts working on-site. We also find that mothers combined paid work and child supervision to a greater extent than did fathers.

Same-Sex Couples and the Child Earnings Penalty

Barbara Downs
,
U.S. Census Bureau
Lucia Foster
,
U.S. Census Bureau
Rachel Nesbit
,
U.S. Census Bureau
Danielle H. Sandler
,
U.S. Census Bureau

Abstract

Existing work has shown the entry of a child into a household results in a large and sustained increase in the earnings gap between male and female partners in opposite-sex couples. Potential reasons for this include preferences, comparative advantage, and gender norms. We expand this analysis of the child penalty to examine earnings of individuals in same-sex couples in the U.S. around the time their first child enters the household. Using linked survey and administrative data and event-study methodology, we confirm earlier work finding a child penalty for women in opposite-sex couples. We find this is true even when the female partner is the primary earner pre-parenthood, lending support to the importance of gender norms in opposite-sex couples. By contrast, in both female and male same-sex couples, earnings changes associated with child entry differ by the relative pre-parenthood earnings of the partners and tend towards equalization: secondary earners see an increase in earnings, while primary earners see a small decrease.

Discussant(s)
Leila Gautham
,
Leeds University
Kasey Buckles
,
University of Notre Dame
Misty L. Heggeness
,
U.S. Census Bureau and University of Maryland
Jessica Brown
,
University of South Carolina
JEL Classifications
  • J1 - Demographic Economics
  • J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor