Labor Supply Of Mothers Research Articles

Grandparental childcare and maternal labor supply in Chinese families with young children: Evidence from the China Family Panel Studies

With the implementation of the three-child policy and delayed retirement policy, the conflicts between childcare responsibility and mothers’ labor supply in China have increased dramatically. The present study utilized data from the 2018 China Family Panel Studies to investigate the impacts of grandparental childcare on the labor supply of mothers with children aged 0–6 years. The results of the Probit model and Tobit model indicated that grandparental childcare could significantly increase mother’s labor force participation rate and extend their weekly working hours. The relation of grandparental childcare to mothers’ labor force participation in one-child families was stronger compared with multi-child families. However, its relation to mothers’ working hours in one-child families was smaller than that in multi-child families. Furthermore, the effect of grandparental childcare on mothers’ labor supply was more pronounced when children were younger, particularly for those with children aged 0–2 years. The findings highlight the important role of grandparental childcare and have several implications for family support policies.

Income effects and labour supply: Evidence from a child benefits reform

In this paper, we exploit a unique and unexpected reform to the child benefit system in Denmark to assess the effects of child benefits on parental labour supply. A cap on child benefit payments in 2011 led to a non-negligible reduction in child benefits for larger families with young children while leaving child benefits for smaller families unchanged. The differential impact of this policy represents an opportunity to assess the causal impact of child benefit programmes on the labour supply of mothers and fathers. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that the reduction in benefits leads to a substantial increase in the labour supply of mothers. Mothers respond to the policy at both the intensive and extensive margins, with the latter outweighing the former, and the effect persists after controlling for fertility-related family characteristics. To fix preferences for additional children across treatment and control groups, we use data on parents’ medical consultations on sterilisation, a common procedure in Denmark.

The Labour Supply of Mothers

The Labour Supply of Mothers

The effect of family size on parents' labor supply and occupational prestige: Evidence from Taiwan and Mainland China

This paper studies the effect of family size on parents' labor supply and occupational prestige, using the censuses of both Taiwan and Mainland China. We rely on the exogenous increase in child quantity that results from having twins at the first birth. Our results indicate that an increase in family size has negative effects on the labor supply of mothers but not of fathers, in both Taiwan and Mainland China. In addition, we find that in Taiwan fathers tend to switch to occupations with lower prestige scores in response to an increase in family size. However, the negative effect of family size on occupational prestige is not observed in Mainland China, where the occupational mobility is low.

Home production, market substitutes, and the labor supply of mothers

We study the interaction among the home production of food, the market for industrialized food, and the labor supply of mothers. For this, we introduce a model of child nutrition based on two substitutes. Industrialized food is produced in an imperfectly competitive market where its price, quality, and quantity are endogenously determined. Home-produced food is superior in quality but is time-consuming to make and, thus, entails opportunity costs for mothers. We derive the equilibrium and the socially optimal quality of industrialized food. Finally, we suggest government policies to boost the labor supply of mothers and social welfare, including setting regulatory quality standards and supporting technological changes in the production of industrialized and homemade food.

Hope for the Family: The Effects of College Costs on Maternal Labor Supply

We examine the effects of college costs on the labor supply of mothers. Exploiting changes in college costs after the roll-out of nine generous state merit aid programs from 1993 to 2004, we analyze the difference in the labor supply of mothers before and after these programs were implemented. Mothers of college-age children decreased their annual hours of work after the start of a generous merit aid program, while fathers did not adjust their labor supply. There is no strong evidence that mothers changed their employment status, as most of the decrease in hours of work happened among employed mothers. Mothers of college-going children are entirely responsible for the decline in hours of work, where mothers of children who did not go to college experienced no change in hours of work. A 10 percent increase in spending on merit aid programs per undergraduate student leads to a 1.3 percent decline in hours of work among mothers of college-going children. The decline in labor supply is mainly due to adjustments among married, highly educated, and white mothers.

Time to Grow Up? Adult Children as Determinants of Parental Labor Supply

As children transition to adulthood, do they continue being a major determinant of parental labor supply? To answer this question, we examine the effects of college costs on the labor supply of mothers and fathers by exploiting the roll-out of nine generous state merit aid programs from 1993 to 2004, which made college more affordable. Mothers of college-age children decrease their annual hours of work after the introduction of these state-wide programs, while fathers do not adjust their labor supply. Mothers of college-going children are entirely responsible for the decline in hours of work, where mothers of children who do not go to college experienced no change in hours of work. The decline in labor supply is mainly due to adjustments among married, more educated, and white mothers.

Child care, parental labor supply and tax revenue

We study the impact of child care for toddlers on the labor supply of mothers and fathers in Norway. For identification, we exploit the staggered expansion across municipalities following a large child care reform from 2002. Our IV-estimates indicate that child care causes an increase in the labor supply of cohabiting mothers who move towards full time employment. Despite this, average taxes paid on the extra income is low, lending little support to the argument that parts of the cost of child care is offset by increased taxes. Meanwhile, we find no impact for fathers.

Fertility and labor supply: evidence from the One-Child Policy in China

ABSTRACTThis study provides new evidence on on the causal effect of fertility on maternal labor supply in rural China, using the fact that in some parts of rural China couples are allowed to have a second child if their firstborn is female. Estimates show that a second child reduces maternal labor force participation by 4.6 percentage points, labor supply intensity (hours worked conditional on employment) by 1.4 h per week and monthly income by 54.5 Chinese Yuan (18.7 percent). Further, the labor supply of mothers whose husbands are rural-to-urban migrants is the most sensitive to having an additional child, likely because they have more difficulty balancing farming and childcare. Conversely, labor supply is not reduced by fertility for mothers living in three-generation families, most likely because grandparents can provide both time and money to help with childcare.

Child Care, Parental Labor Supply and Tax Revenue

We study the impact of child care for toddlers on the labor supply of mothers and fathers in Norway. For identification, we exploit the staggered expansion across municipalities following a large reform from 2002. Our IV-estimates indicate that child care use causes an increase in the labor supply of mothers. Results suggest that cohabiting mothers move towards full time employment, while single mothers move to part time. Meanwhile, we find no impact for fathers or grandparents. We also find an increase in the taxes paid from cohabiting mothers, lending some support to the argument that parts of the cost of child care is offset by increased taxes.

The Differential Impact of Universal Child Benefits on the Labour Supply of Married and Single Mothers

We examine the effects of the Universal Child Care Benefit on the labour supply of mothers. The benefit has a significant negative effect on the labour supply of legally married mothers, reducing their likelihood of participation in the labour force by 1.4 percentage points and hours worked by nearly one hour per week. In contrast, the likelihood of participation by divorced mothers rises by 2.8 percentage points when receiving the benefit and does not affect hours worked. Moreover, the benefit does not have a statistically significant effect on the participation of common-law married mothers or never-married mothers.

Family policies and fathers’ working hours: cross-national differences in the paternal labour supply

Despite extensive research on the effect of family policies on the labour supply of mothers, little is known about how these policies affect fathers’ labour market outcomes. Using European panel data (EU-SILC) from 2003 to 2009 and multi-level models, this study analyses the effect of family policies on fathers’ working hours. The results indicate that fathers work less than childless men if they live in countries that offer well paid, non-transferable parental leave for fathers, short parental leave for mothers and generous family allowances. The effects, however, are strongly contingent on fathers’ educational levels. Whereas short maternal leaves are associated with shorter working hours among highly educated fathers, generous family allowances and father friendly parental leave schemes reduce the working hours of less educated fathers.

Child Care and Labour Market Participation in France: Do Monetary Incentives Matter?

This paper presents a model of the child care arrangements and labour supply of mothers with young children (under three). We use French data to estimate simultaneously mothers' labour force participation and type of child care chosen. The independent variables include estimated child care costs and mother's potential incomes obtained by simulating the benefits and taxes associated with different participation choices (working full-time, part-time or out of the labour market). Availability of free child care (from family and relatives) is also taken into account. We show that monetary incentives do play a role. Child care costs have a direct effect on mothers'

MATERNAL LABOR SUPPLY AND THE AVAILABILITY OF PUBLIC PRE‐K: EVIDENCE FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF PREKINDERGARTEN INTO AMERICAN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

In the 1980s and 1990s, many states and districts began to provide funding for prekindergarten (PK) programs for the first time. This paper takes advantage of the staggered timing in program funding to investigate the effect that increased availability of PK programs has on the labor supply of mothers with 4‐year‐olds. I find that mothers with a 4‐year‐old and no younger children were significantly more likely to be in the labor force and employed once PK became available. Mothers with a 4‐year‐old and other younger children were also significantly more likely to be in the labor force and employed. (JEL I20, J01, J20)

Mommies' Girls Get Dresses, Daddies' Boys Get Toys: Gender Preferences in Poland and Their Implications

We examine the relationship of child gender with family and economic outcomes using a large dataset from the Polish Household Budgets' Survey (PHBS) for years 2003-2009. Apart from studying the effects of gender on family stability, fertility and mothers' labor market outcomes, we take advantage of the PHBS' detailed expenditure module to examine effects of gender on consumption patterns. We find that a first born daughter is significantly less likely to be living with her father compared to a first born son and that the probability of having the second child is negatively correlated with a first born daughter. Using the context of the collective model we provide interpretation of these results from the perspective of individual parental gender preferences. We also examine the potential effects of sample selection bias which may affect the results and may be important for other findings in the literature. Labor supply of mothers and overall child-related consumption is not affected by gender of the first child, but the pattern of expenditure significantly varies between those with first born sons and first born daughters. One possible interpretation of the findings is that Polish fathers have preferences for sons and Polish mothers have preferences for daughters. Expenditure patterns suggest potential early determination of gender roles – mommies' girls get dresses and daddies' boys get toys.

Child‐Care Policy and the Labor Supply of Mothers with Young Children: A Natural Experiment from Canada

In 1997, the provincial government of Quebec, the second most populous province in Canada, initiated a new child‐care policy. Licensed child‐care service providers began offering day‐care spaces at the reduced fee of $5.00 per day per child for children aged 4. By 2000, the policy applied to all children not in kindergarten. Using annual data (1993–2002) drawn from Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, the results show that the policy had a large and statistically significant impact on the labor supply of mothers with preschool children.

Explaining Changes in Female Labor Supply in a Life-Cycle Model

This paper studies the life-cycle labor supply of three cohorts of American women, born in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. We focus on the increase in labor supply of mothers between the 1940s and 1950s cohorts. We construct a life-cycle model of female participation and savings, and calibrate the model to match the behavior of the middle cohort. We investigate which changes in the determinants of labor supply account for the increases in participation early in the life-cycle observed for the youngest cohort. A combination of a reduction in the cost of children alongside a reduction in the wage-gender gap is needed. (JEL D91, J16, J22, J31)

Low-fee ($5/day/child) Regulated Childcare Policy and the Labor Supply of Mothers with Young Children: A Natural Experiment from Canada

On September 1st, 1997, a new childcare policy was initiated by the provincial government of Quebec, the second most populous province in Canada. Childcare services licensed by the Ministry of the Family (not-for-profit centres, family-based childcare, and for-profit centres under the agreement) began offering day care spaces at the reduced parental contribution of $5 per day child for children aged 4 years. In successive years, the government reduced the age requirement and engaged in a plan to create new childcare facilities and pay for the cost of additional $5 per day childcare spaces. By September 2000, the low-fee policy applied to all children aged 0 to 59 months (not in kindergarten) and the number of partly subsidized spaces increased from 77,000 in 1998 to 163,000 spaces, totally subsidized by the end of year 2002, while the number of eligible children, zero to four years old, declined from 428,000 to 369,000 over the same period. Using annual data (1993 to 2002), drawn from Statistics Canada's Suvey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID), this study attempts to estimate the effect of the policy on the labor supply behavior of Quebec mothers with pre-school children, aged from 0 to 5 years old. The analysis examines the impact of the policy on the following outcomes: labor force participation, annual number of weeks and hours at work, annual earned income and whether the job was full-time for mothers who declared having a job during the reference year. A non-experimental evaluation framework based on multiple pre- and post- treatment periods is used to estimate the effect of the childcare regime. The econometrics results support the hypothesis that the childcare policy, together with the transformation of public kindergarten from a part-time to a full-time basis, had a large and statistically significant impact on the labor supply of Quebec's mothers with pre-school children. The estimates also suggest, though less convincingly, that the size of the impact increased concurrently with the positive growth in the number of low-fee spaces.

Policy Changes, Employment, and Single Parenthood in Finland

The labor supply of mothers is in? uenced by womens preferences and labor market conditions, as well as by family policy packages which enable families to reconcile work and family life. This article deepens the understanding about why Finnish single mothers are facing higher unemployment risks than mothers in two-parent families. The main question is how the changes in the Finnish family policy system have affected the economic and labor market status of single mothers in the last part of the 1990s. Have the changes in family policy affected their entry / re-entry into the labor market? Or can these changes in employment rate be explained by mothers personal decisions. Single parents were more vulnerable compared to partnered mothers in parental leave reforms and in the Family reform package in 1994. Changes in the labor market have had an impact on the situation of mothers with small children. One group of mothers can enjoy the full provision of leaves, bene? ts and job security, but an increased share of mothers have become dependent on only basic bene? ts. In this respect, the inequality among mothers has increased.

Labour supply effects of a cash-for-care subsidy

From 1999, all parents in Norway with children aged one to three, who did not attend publicly subsidised daycare, became eligible for a cash-for-care (CFC) subsidy. One effect of the CFC-subsidy was to increase in the relative price of external child care. This article analyses whether the CFC-subsidy has led to a reduction in the labour supply of mothers. A framework for evaluating policy reforms when reforms are equally and nation-wide accessible is put forward. The results show that the CFC-subsidy has reduced women’s labour supply. The results are sustained after controlling for contemporaneous macroeconomic shocks, using a triple difference approach.