On the sharing of temporary parental leave: the case of Sweden

This paper views temporary parental leave (leave from work to take care of a sick child) as a household public good, produced with time inputs of the parents as the only input. Assuming equal productivities in the production of temporary parental leave and equal utility functions of the spouses, different household decision-making processes are applied to develop theoretical hypotheses on sharing that are thereafter tested empirically. The empirical estimations show that the decision-making process of the spouses can be explained by a Stackelberg model with male dominance. A stronger threat-point of the female is found to push the intra household allocation of temporary parental leave towards greater sharing between the spouses. In addition, an increase in the insurance ceiling will further sharing of temporary parental leave in some families, while reducing it in others.

Gender preference,biased sex ratio,and parental investments in single-child households

This article investigates parental investments in single-child households. It shows that son preference triggers more parental investments in children and its effects are stronger on investments in sons. A rise in the sex ratio creates a marriage market squeeze. It, however, has ambiguous effects on investments in children, which depends on how strong these investments are as measures for influencing children’s marriage probability. A rise in the sex ratio may particularly raise investments in daughters and lower investments in sons, or vice versa, or it may induce more or less parental investments in both sons and daughters. If the sex ratio and preference of sons are correlated, then the effect of the preference for sons on investments in children is generally ambiguous. If the sex ratio is influenced by parental health investments, then son preference induces a higher sex ratio. However, the higher sex ratio has ambiguous effects on the subsequent parental investments before a child’s marriage. We also show that parental preference of child services over a child’s marital status may explain parental investments.

The Decomposition of Firm-size Wage Differentials

No completely satisfactory explanation for the persistent and well-documented large-firm wage premium has been found. I use a novel adaptation of the Oaxaca/Blinder wage discrimination model to examine the firm-size wage differential which allows the wage differential to be decomposed into the portions attributable to (1) differences in employee endowments, (2) how the firm values these endowments, and (3) residual differences. Small firms actually pay higher wages based on how they value their workers’ endowments, but this wage premium was overshadowed by the superior endowments of workers in large firms and a residual differential in favor of large firms.

The distribution of financial well-being and income within the household

In this paper we consider the issue of the intra-household distribution of welfare directly using a survey measure of self-perceived economic well-being. We develop a theoretical model of satisfaction within the household for couples. In the empirical analysis we find that husbands and wives often report different levels of financial satisfaction. The most important correlate of relative satisfaction within the household is found to be relative income. This is a direct confirmation of the previously implicit findings and is predicted by our theoretical model.

The economics of gay and lesbian couples: Introduction to a special issue on gay and lesbian households

This article presents a simple conceptual framework integrating three couple-related outcomes analyzed in this volume: wage differentials in earnings related to couple formation, household formation (including cohabitation and registration as Registered Domestic Partnership), and intra-household allocation of income. It also discusses some of the articles’ main findings.

Combining Stated and Revealed Preference Data to Construct an Empirical Examination of Intrahousehold Bargaining

Most analysis of intrahousehold decisions has been conducted using aggregate revealed preference data where preferences of individual agents are never observed, only the household consumption outcomes are observed. We examine household behavior in a bargaining framework by combining stated preference information from individual members of the household with revealed preference information on the household’s actual choices. The resulting model provides information on the degree to which the decision is the result of a bargaining process as well as information on the factors affecting bargaining power.

A public good version of the collective household model: an empirical approach with an application to British household data

In this paper we consider an empirical collective household model of time allocation for two-earner households. The novelty of this paper is that we estimate a version of the collective household model, where the internally produced goods and externally purchased goods are assumed to be public. The empirical results suggest that (1) Preferences of men and women differ; (2) Although there are significant individual variations, on average the utility functions of men and women are equally weighted in the household utility function; (3) Differences in the ratio of the partners’ hourly wages are explanatory for how individual utilities are weighted in the household utility function. (4) The female’s preference for household production is influenced by family size, but this does not hold for the male; (5) Both the male and the female have a backward-bending labor supply curve; (6) Labor-supply curves are forward-bending with respect to the partner’s wage rate; (7) Our model rejects the unitary Slutsky symmetry condition.

The effect of family structure on parents’ child care time in the United States and the United Kingdom

We use time-diary data from the 2003 and 2004 American Time Use Surveys and the 2000 United Kingdom Time Use Study to estimate the effect of family structure on the time mothers and fathers spend on primary and passive child care and on market work, using a system of correlated Tobit equations. Our results indicate that estimates are sensitive to the inclusion of a common household factor that controls for selection into family type. Estimates from the selection-controlled models indicate that single parents in both countries spend more time in child care than married or cohabiting parents, perhaps in part to compensate for the missing parent, but that there is no difference in the time allocation of married and cohabiting parents. There are substantial cross-country differences, however, as single parents in the U.S. work more than other parents and single parents in the U.K. work less.

The scoring rules in an endogenous election

Plurality rule is mostly criticized from being capable of choosing an alternative considered as worst by a strict majority. This paper considers elections in which the agenda consists of potential candidates strategically choosing whether or not to enter the election. In this context, we examine the ability of scoring rules to fulfil the Condorcet criterion. We show for the case of three potential candidates that Plurality rule is the only scoring rule that satisfies a version of the Condorcet criterion in two cases: 1) when preferences are single-peaked and, 2) when preferences are single-dipped.

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Poverty and its persistence: a comparison of natives and immigrants in Sweden

This paper analyzes poverty and its persistence in Sweden using a large panel with detailed income information obtained from tax registers. As opposed to many commonly used household panels, the features of the data utilized in this paper allow us to study native-immigrant differences in poverty. We use a hazard rate model based on multiple spells that accounts for unobserved heterogeneity and endogenous initial conditions. The empirical results suggest that there is negative duration dependence in both exit and entry hazard rates. Moreover, the transition rates are significantly affected by immigrant status, educational attainment, labor market conditions, age, and family status.

Household Debt and Marital Instability: Evidence from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study

Korean society has recently experienced rapid increases in household debt and divorce rates. This study investigates whether household debt and debt ratios lower marital stability and increase the probability of divorce among Korean families. Six-year panels from the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) household surveys were used for analysis. The effect of household debt upon the probability of divorce was estimated through pooled and population-averaged Logit models. The results suggest that household financial strain measured by the amount of household debt and the debt-to-income ratios does not significantly affect the probability of divorce. This finding contradicts the widespread notion that households’ excessive borrowing has been partially responsible for the recent increase in divorce rates in Korea.

Economic Status of Older Asians in the United States

Data from the 5-percent Census 2000 Public Use Microdata were utilized to examine the economic status of six Asian-only groups in the United States aged 65 and older. Japanese Americans’ economic status emulated that of older Whites; whereas, older Korean and Vietnamese economic status more closely resembled that of older Blacks. Regression results indicated that education, household size, and duration of immigration were significantly and positively related to household income for most of the Asian-only groups, supporting the theory that human capital, structural barriers, and acculturation all play a role in determination of household income for older Asian Americans.

Households’ precautionary behaviors—the effects of the introduction of National Health Insurance in Taiwan

By reducing risk of large out-of-pocket medical expenses, comprehensive social health insurance may reduce households’ motivation to engage in precautionary behaviors such as saving, procurement of private insurance, and spousal labor-force participation. We use the natural experiment provided by the 1995 introduction of National Health Insurance in Taiwan to examine these effects, using pre-existing differences in access to health insurance (tied to the household head’s and spouse’s joint employment status) to identify the effects of increasing insurance coverage. We find that comprehensive health insurance has a statistically significant and large effect on household savings, but no significant effects on purchase of private accident insurance and spousal employment.

The impact of biological preferences on parental investments in children and step-children

A remarriage typically involves significant changes in a family’s financial circumstance, and these changes, combined with the relative bargaining relationship between spouses, likely affect the well-being of the children who are part of the family. In this paper, I use the separate-spheres model, a theoretical model that explains the determinants of bargaining power in marriage, to analyze how a remarried couple’s bargaining relationship affects their child investment in stepfamilies. Based on this theoretical model, I build and estimate an empirical model that investigates the determinants of parental investment. As evidence of parental preference for biological children over stepchildren, I find that an increased wage rate of a biological mother significantly improves her child investment when her husband is a stepfather of the child, while there is no such effect for mothers living with the biological father of the child.

Family Financial Risk Taking When the Wife Earns More

This study investigates whether the relative bargaining power of spouses plays a role in explaining household financial risk taking. Traditional models assume that household decisions are made based on pooled resources and common preferences. In contrast, bargaining models hypothesize that household decisions depend on the relative bargaining power of spouses. According to bargaining models, if women are more risk averse, then households should exhibit less financial risk taking as the bargaining power of the wife increases. Results of an analysis of household financial risk taking in a sample of dual-earner, married households from the 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances are more consistent with decision making based on pooled resources rather than on the relative bargaining power of spouses.

Collective Models of Labor Supply with Nonconvex Budget Sets and Nonparticipation: A Calibration Approach

We suggest a methodology to calibrate a collective model with household-specific bargaining rules and marriage-specific preferences that incorporate leisure externalities. The empirical identification relies on the assumption that some aspects of individual preferences remain the same after marriage, so that estimation on single individuals can be used. The procedure maps the complete Pareto frontier of each household in the dataset and we define alternative measures of a power index. The latter is then regressed on relevant bargaining factors, including a set of variables retracing the potential relative contributions of the spouses to household disposable income. In its capacity to handle complex budget sets and labor force participation decisions of both spouses, this framework allows the comparison of unitary and collective predictions of labor supply reactions and welfare changes entailed by fiscal reforms in a realistic setting (see Michal Myck et al., 2006; Denis Beninger et al., 2006).

A Review of the Literature on the Social and Economic Determinants of Parental Time

Parental time has been identified as a key determinant in the healthy development of a child. The literature on this topic has rapidly increased in recent years and has revealed large variations in the amount of time that parents devote to their children, including variations over time and across social and economic subgroups of the population. This paper synthesizes research devoted to parental time to provide a more succinct understanding of its significance and its variations. Beginning with the measurement issues associated with parental time research and the theoretical foundations, the paper goes on to document the social and economic determinants of parental time. It concludes with a discussion of the theoretical implications of the findings and suggestions for future research.

How Satisfied are Spouses with their Leisure Time? Evidence from Europe

This paper first identifies the determinants of spouses’ satisfaction levels within the household with respect to their leisure time and, secondly, characterizes whether their preferences have some degree of altruistic or egoistic character in regard to this particular satisfaction. To that end, it formulates a theoretical framework from the collective family model whose stochastic formulations are estimated for 14 EU countries. The general empirical results first reveal that the presence of children has a significantly negative impact on the leisure satisfaction of both spouses. Then, increases in individual incomes lead to lower own leisure satisfaction levels. Both husbands and wives show egoistic behavior with respect to the labor and non-labor incomes (wage rate) of their respective spouses’ satisfaction levels.

Estimating the impacts of household behavior on youth smoking: evidence from Ontario, Canada

This study attempts to evaluate the relative impacts of parents, siblings, and classmates on youth smoking by employing longitudinal data from the Waterloo Smoking Prevention Program (WSPP), a chronicle of smoking habits of students enrolled in various high schools in South Western Ontario, between 1993 and 1996. The empirical results reveal household and classmate smoking to be significant determinants of individual smoking participation as well as daily smoking. Specifically, an increase in the proportion of classmates who admit to smoking and cigarette consumption by an elder sibling, are both significantly correlated with a higher probability of youth smoking. This is a consistent finding across OLS, within-individual, and IV estimates. Finally, simple OLS estimates suggest the presence of non-linear effects with respect to classmate smoking.

The Role of Affect Regulation in a Case of Attempted Maternal-Filicide Suicide: Commentary on an Act of Despair

A case of attempted maternal-filial suicide is discussed from the perspective of trauma, emotional regulation and defense mechanisms. Case details which include childhood sexual abuse, observed parental violence and emotional neglect allow for an illustration of the impact of childhood family experiences on adult intimacy and coping patterns. Domestic violence and the perception of protection are also explored. Emotional regulation in the experience of despair is approached from an object relations perspective. Based on this, implications for prevention and treatment are presented.