Watching kids
Television, Cognitive Ability, and High School Completion
Øystein Hernæs, Simen Markussen & Knut Røed
Journal of Human Resources, forthcoming
Abstract:
We exploit supply-driven heterogeneity in the expansion of cable television across Norwegian municipalities to identify developmental effects of commercial television exposure during childhood. We find that higher exposure to commercial television reduces cognitive ability and high school graduation rates for boys. The effects appear to be driven by consumption of light television entertainment crowding out more cognitively stimulating activities. Point estimates suggest that the effects are most negative for boys from more educated families. We find no effect on high school completion for girls, pointing to the growth of non-educational media as a factor in the widening educational gender gap.
Marital Status and Mothers’ Time Use: Childcare, Housework, Leisure, and Sleep
Joanna Pepin, Liana Sayer & Lynne Casper
Demography, February 2018, Pages 107–133
Abstract:
Assumptions that single mothers are “time poor” compared with married mothers are ubiquitous. We tested theorized associations derived from the time poverty thesis and the gender perspective using the 2003–2012 American Time Use Surveys (ATUS). We found marital status differentiated housework, leisure, and sleep time, but did not influence the amount of time that mothers provided childcare. Net of the number of employment hours, married mothers did more housework and slept less than never-married and divorced mothers, counter to expectations of the time poverty thesis. Never-married and cohabiting mothers reported more total and more sedentary leisure time than married mothers. We assessed the influence of demographic differences among mothers to account for variation in their time use by marital status. Compositional differences explained more than two-thirds of the variance in sedentary leisure time between married and never-married mothers, but only one-third of the variance between married and cohabiting mothers. The larger unexplained gap in leisure quality between cohabiting and married mothers is consistent with the gender perspective.
Family First or the Kindness of Strangers? Foster Care Placements and Adult Outcomes
Nicholas Lovett & Yuhan Xue
University of Wisconsin Working Paper, March 2018
Abstract:
Foster care youth are a large population that have reliably been shown to be at high risk of poor adult outcomes that are costly to both former foster youth and the public. We evaluate the effects of placing foster children with extended family, rather than unrelated caregivers, using individual-level panel data. Our analysis utilizes an instrumental variable identification strategy that uses monthly compensation rates to mimic randomization in placement type to estimate the effects of placement in kinship foster care relative to traditional foster care. We find kinship care conveys significant benefits in the form of improved life outcomes at age 21. Former foster youth that were placed with kin are more likely to be employed or enrolled in formal education, and less likely to participate in public assistance programs, suffer from homelessness, or be incarcerated. Our findings are highly significant from both a practical and a statistical perspective and hold across a wide range of specifications. We posit that kinship care may better maintain ties between youth and family members that are vital in the transition to successful adulthood.
Differential Fecundity and Child Custody
Eva Garcia-Moran
Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, May 2018, Pages 156-170
Abstract:
Despite U.S. child custody laws favoring joint custody since the mid 1970s, mother sole custody is still the main custody arrangement. This paper proposes that differences in fecundity between men and women play a role in accounting for this fact. Men are more likely to have more children after a divorce because they are fertile for more years than women. This acts as an incentive for couples to agree on mothers’ sole custody. I build a general equilibrium model of endogenous marriage, divorce and remarriage with differential fecundity between women and men where couples choose custody allocation. Custody depends on the fecundity differential and father’s time spent with children. I calibrate my model to be consistent with observed U.S. child custody arrangements and marriage statistics and using changes over time in assisted reproductive technology (ART) and father’s time spent with children I quantify the effect of the fecundity differential on child custody. Results show that if assisted reproductive technology was not available, the current share of couples with joint custody would be 15.67% lower. Considering that fathers’ time with children has also changed over time, I find that a reduction in the fecundity differential accounts for an increase in the share of couples with joint custody of 4%.
Race/Ethnic Differences in Nonresident Fathers’ Involvement After a Nonmarital Birth
Calvina Ellerbe, Jerrett Jones & Marcia Carlson
Social Science Quarterly, forthcoming
Objectives: This article examines how the levels of nonresidential fathers' involvement (over child ages 1–9) differ by race/ethnicity (comparing white, black, and Hispanic fathers), and then considers how individual and couple characteristics may “account for” any observed differences.
Method: Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,447) and random effects models were used to examine how nonresidential fathers' involvement (with respect to time, engagement, shared responsibility, and co-parenting with mothers) is differentiated by race and ethnicity.
Results: Overall, black nonresident fathers were significantly more likely to spend time and engage in activities with their children as compared to Hispanic fathers — but not white fathers. Black fathers also shared responsibilities more frequently and displayed more effective co-parenting than Hispanic and white fathers.
Increasing Maternal Employment Influences Child Overweight/Obesity Among Ethnically Diverse Families
Anna Ettinger, Anne Riley & Carmel Price
Journal of Family Issues, forthcoming
Abstract:
Maternal employment is associated with child overweight/obesity, but the mechanisms influencing this relationship are not clear among diverse populations. We examined the effects of employment and parenting variables on child overweight/obesity among low-income Black and Latino families. Using longitudinal data from the Three-City Study, we analyzed the effects of maternal employment and nonstandard work schedule on child overweight/obesity and examined time away from children, parenting stress, and parenting practices as potential mediators. Mothers who increased their work hours during preschool years had children with approximately 2.6 times the odds of overweight/obesity compared to mothers who did not change their work status. Time away from children partially mediated the association between employment and child overweight/obesity. More consistent family routines were associated with a 61% decline in odds of child overweight/obesity. Early increases in maternal employment elevated the odds of child overweight/obesity, but regular family routines reduced the odds of overweight/obesity among school-age children in low-income Black and Latino families.
The Impacts of Paid Family Leave Benefits: Regression Kink Evidence from California Administrative Data
Sarah Bana, Kelly Bedard & Maya Rossin-Slater
NBER Working Paper, March 2018
Abstract:
Although the United States provides unpaid maternity and family leave to qualifying workers, it is the only OECD country without a national paid leave policy, making wage replacement a pivotal issue under debate. We use ten years of linked administrative data from California together with a regression kink (RK) design to estimate the causal impacts of benefits in the first state-level paid family leave program for women with earnings near the maximum benefit threshold. We find no evidence that a higher weekly benefit amount (WBA) increases leave duration or leads to adverse future labor market outcomes for mothers in this group. In contrast, we document consistent evidence that an increase in the WBA leads to a small increase in the share of quarters worked one to two years after the leave and a sizeable increase in the likelihood of making a future paid family leave claim across a variety of specifications.
The Impact of Maternal Care on Child Development: Evidence from Sibling Spillover Effects of a Parental Leave Expansion
Nagham Sayour
Labour Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using a parental leave reform implemented in Canada at the end of 2000, I study the effects of an increase in maternal care on the developmental outcomes of children aged 2-3 years old. The reform increased the time mothers spent with their newborns by 3 months. Using the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, I employ a difference-in-differences methodology, where I compare children with a sibling born after the reform to those with a sibling born before the reform, relative to children of the same birth cohorts with no siblings born in the period surrounding the reform. Results show that treated children enjoy an increase of 3.6 hours per week in the time they spend with their mothers, mainly due to a decrease in the time spent in non-institutional care. The increase in maternal care improves the emotional disorder score in the short-run and has no other impact on cognitive, non-cognitive or health outcomes in the short-run or the medium-run. Studying heterogeneous effects reveals a differential impact by child's age. An increase of 6.5 hours per week in the time 2-year-olds spend with their mothers significantly improves their non-cognitive skills.
Spending Patterns of Chinese Parents on Children’s Backpacks Support the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis: Results Based on Transaction Data from China’s Largest Online Retailer
Shige Song
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using the 2015 student backpack transaction data from the largest e-commerce business in China, this study takes a novel “big data” approach to test the patterns of parental sex preference by comparing the difference in cost between blue and pink backpacks at different quantiles of the backpack cost distribution. Unconditional quantile regression results show that, depending on the quantile of choice, the blue-pink difference in backpack cost can be positive, negative, or zero. This indicates the presence of son preference, daughter preference, and gender indifference in the same population. Treating backpack cost as a proxy measure of parental economic status, such results indicate that parents of high economic status invest more heavily in sons whereas parents of low economic status invest more heavily in daughters, as predicted by the Trivers-Willard hypothesis. The discovery of a third group, between the high- and low-status parents, who invest equally in sons and daughters further strengthens the argument.