Who is Picking Up the Child from Day Care?: Understanding the Intrahousehold Dynamics in Drop-Off and Pickup Allocation for Households with Dependent Children

Abstract

This paper presents a joint model for the allocation of drop-off and pickup responsibilities and the choice of the day care location for two-adult households with dependent children. This analysis aims to capture the trade-offs that occur at the household level in the selection of both day care location and drop-off and pickup responsibility allocation. The paper uses a stochastic frontier modeling approach to predict feasible locations for each possible allocation pair. The frontier model predicts the maximum distance an individual would be willing to travel within a time budget constraint. This travel time prediction is then applied to each individual for generating feasible location sets given two endogenous anchor points. The paper then presents a joint econometric-choice model of task allocation and day care location with heterogeneous sampling correction factors for each possible allocation. Captured within the model are the choice of who performs the drop-off and pickup activities and the eventual location that is selected for day care. The model structure provides key insights into both the choice to use day care and the allocation of drop-off and pickup responsibilities.