Expenditures for Services, Wife's Employment, and Other Household Characteristics

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the wife's employment status and expenditures for purchased services—specifically, meals in restaurants and clothing care, child care, and domestic services. The sample consisted of 354 households from the Consumer Expenditure Survey, 1984 Inter view Survey. Tobit regression analysis was used to test the relationship. The results indicated that the amount of time the wife spent on work was positively related to expenditure on child care services, but not other services. Compared with nonemployed‐wife households, full‐time‐employed‐wife households were found to spend more on child care services. Expenditures for meals in restaurants were found to be higher for the full‐time employed wife compared to the part‐ time employed wife. Education of wife and household income were found to be significant factors in expenditures for most services.