Review of Economics of the Household最新文献

Like most countries, the Chilean government closed schools as part of its pandemic public health mandates. In this paper, we study the impact of central planner variation in school reopenings on parental labor supply focusing on the initial three months after schools partially reopened. Mothers' labor force participation decreased by 5.1 percentage points (ppts) one month after reopening relative to mothers near closed schools and decreased by 9.5 ppts among householder mothers. Two or three months later, mothers who remained in the labor force saw a minimal increase in their ability to actively work and, more specifically, to work in informal jobs. The labor force participation of fathers increased anywhere from 2.0 to 2.9 ppts and by as much as 10.7 ppts for non-householder fathers. Unplanned care interruptions during school reopening had differential effects on parental labor supply. Our findings support a theory that parental labor supply is sensitive to childcare transitions both in terms of gender and the householder status of the parent.

College-educated mothers spend substantially more time in intensive childcare than less educated mothers despite their higher opportunity cost of time and working more hours. Using data from the 2010-2013 and 2021 waves of the Well-being Module of the American Time Use Survey, we investigate this puzzle by testing the hypothesis that college-educated mothers enjoy childcare more. We find that among all mothers, spending time in childcare is associated with higher positive feelings compared to spending time in other activities. However, college-educated mothers experience no more positive feelings and no fewer negative feelings during intensive childcare than other mothers. This is true for mothers' childcare time in basic care, play, teaching, and management, and for mothers whose youngest child is under five, six to eleven, or older than eleven years old. Findings are robust to controlling for a rich set of covariates, mother fixed effects, and simulations to account for selection into intensive childcare.

Although long-term care remains one of the largest uninsured risks facing older Americans, demand for insurance remains low. While there is a long literature estimating a variety of factors that contribute to this low demand, much of it has overlooked the fact that most private long-term care insurance (LTCI) purchases are made within couples, adding a host of additional reasons for low demand. This paper examines the role of financial decision-making power within the couple and the association with LTCI purchase decisions. We document LTCI purchase patterns among married couples and find that, among couples who ever purchase LTCI, they are roughly equally likely to purchase for the woman exclusively (10.0%), the man exclusively (11%), or both (11%). However, among couples where women have more bargaining power, LTCI purchases are more likely overall (40% vs. 33%), and more likely to cover the woman, either exclusively (16% vs. 11%) or as part of both members of the couple (14% vs. 11%), than among couples with more traditional gender roles. In adjusted analyses, we find that women are more likely to be insured when they have more bargaining power. These findings suggest that intra-household bargaining power may be another potential explanation for the particularly low LTCI take-up, especially in the time period in which policies were unisex-priced.

This study estimates the heterogeneous effects of the first childbirth on mothers’ annual income, using data from several waves (1979-2018) of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. Women usually experience an immediate decrease in their income after childbirth, compared to what they would have earned if they had not become mothers. This gap closes somewhat over time, though mothers never fully catch up to their counterfactuals. Previous work tried to explain this “motherhood penalty” by estimating the average treatment effect of children on women’s income; however, these effects can be quite heterogeneous across mothers with different observable characteristics. Instead, our analysis centers on the distribution of the individual-level effects of the first childbirth on mothers’ income, using the Changes-in-Changes model and quantile regression. Identifying the features of this distribution is a challenging task as it requires knowledge of joint distribution. We find that around 73% of mothers have lower income after their first childbirth than they would have had if they had not had a child. These adverse effects are particularly pronounced among 10–20% of mothers. Our quantile regression analysis indicates that the first childbirth most negatively affects older, single/divorced, white, and more educated mothers.

We use a matched employer-employee dataset covering the universe of employees in the Italian private sector to compare labor market outcomes of mothers and fathers during the pandemic. We find that mothers experienced a larger penalty in terms of reduced labor market earnings compared to fathers (−14.1 vs. −6.9 %) in 2020 and the first half of 2021. In contrast, starting from July 2021, we observe similar trends in mothers’ and fathers’ earnings. Evidence highlighting differences in penalties according to the sector of activity (essential vs. non-essential and easiness of access to work from home), the type of contract, the age of children, and the pre-pandemic mother-father pay gap suggests that both demand and supply factors have played a role in explaining the gendered impact of COVID-19.

Prior studies show men commute longer than women, often due to household responsibilities. However, research on commuting differences within couples is limited. This study examines gender gaps in commuting times and mode choices among dual-earner couples in Spain, Italy, South Korea, and the UK. Using Ordinary Least Squares regressions, we find that the presence of children significantly increases gender gaps in commuting times in Italy and the UK, supporting the household responsibility hypothesis. Conversely, no significant link between children and gender gaps is observed in Spain and Korea. Additionally, children’s presence affects commuting mode choices in Italy across all modes, and in Korea for public transit only, with Italian women showing the most changes in commuting mode when children are present.

We examine the relationship between unemployment insurance generosity and reported intimate partner violence in the U.S. by leveraging the staggered adoption of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which increased unemployment insurance payments by $600 per week in 2020. Using detailed nationwide police report data, we find that states that implemented this program reported 9% more cases of intimate partner violence (IPV) than states which had not yet implemented the program, driven primarily by increases in aggravated assault, intimidation, and sexual assault. This is consistent with prior evidence on changes in government transfers and IPV. These results are not explained by local differences in unemployment, sheltering in place, economic impact payments, COVID-19 case rates, or temperature. We also find a decrease in total reported IPV against men, but more serious offenses increase.

This study estimates the effects of state laws that allow access to independently owned bank accounts without a custodian. In states where minors can own accounts, youth aged 16 through 19 are more likely to be banked, although by age 24 those young adults are banked at similar rates to teens who grew up in states that do not allow minors to own accounts independently. However, young adults who had access to independently owned accounts as teens are then more likely to use high-cost non-bank financial services, particularly check-cashing services. Young adults who had access to non-custodial accounts as teens also show lower credit scores and more loan delinquencies at ages 21 through 24. While state banking policies can increase financial inclusion for teenagers, minors with bank accounts could face frictions transitioning to adult accounts.

US state legislation requiring parental involvement in the abortion decision of a minor has grown in prevalence since its origin in the 1970s. Today, 36 states impose a parental involvement requirement on their residents below the age of 18. These laws come in two primary categories: parental notification and parental consent. Though much research estimates the effects of these policies, limited evidence exists regarding any differential impact between parental notification and parental consent. This paper uses the synthetic control method to determine if the increased marginal cost of an abortion imposed by a parental consent statute affects the abortion rate and birth rate for minors relative to parental notification. Results indicate no evidence of a marginal effect of parental consent laws on the abortion/birth rate for minors overall, suggesting that the additional cost of a parental consent law may be small.

Using American Community Survey data from 2005 to 2021, we document differences in housing outcomes by race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Relative to White couples, Black couples have substantially lower homeownership probabilities and home values. The Hispanic-White gap in housing outcomes is smaller than the Black-White gap. With respect to sexual orientation, same-sex couples have lower ownership probabilities than married, different-sex couples. By revealing where inequities in housing exist, our results can inform policies to close the gaps in housing outcomes.