Holding the pencil or buying paint Parental childcare versus childrens need for extra income. The case of Belgium, Denmark and Spain

This article addresses the influence of child characteristics on couples' decision-making regarding employment and parental childcare. Through simultaneous equation modeling we are able to separate earnings from care motives in this decision-making process. An empirical exercise on Belgian data...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inReview of economics of the household Vol. 3; no. 3; pp. 269 - 289
Main Author Ghysels, Joris
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Dordrecht Springer Nature B.V 01.09.2005
Subjects
Arbeitsplatzangebot
Belgien
Child care
Children & youth
Decision making
Dänemark
Earnings
Economic analysis
Economic models
Expected utility
Households
Kind
Kinderbetreuung
Labor supply
Leisure
Parents & parenting
Schätzung
Spanien
Studies
Utility functions
Women
Working hours
Zeitallokation
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Summary:This article addresses the influence of child characteristics on couples' decision-making regarding employment and parental childcare. Through simultaneous equation modeling we are able to separate earnings from care motives in this decision-making process. An empirical exercise on Belgian data illustrates how the earnings motive counteracts the care motive and causes a rise in the probability of a full-time job following an increase of the number of children. However, replication on Danish and Spanish data also suggests that a country's incentive framework provides important limits to couples' decision-making. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1569-5239
1573-7152
DOI:10.1007/s11150-005-3458-y