Prenatal development in rural South Africa: relationship between birth weight and access to fathers and grandparents

Birth weight is an indicator of prenatal development associated with health in infancy and childhood, and may be affected by the family environment experienced by the mother during pregnancy. Using data from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, we explore the importance of the mother's access to the father and grandparents of the child during pregnancy. Controlling for household socio-economic indicators and maternal characteristics, the survival and residence of the biological father with the mother are positively associated with birth weight. The type of relationship seems to matter: married women have the heaviest newborns, but co-residence with a non-marital partner is also associated with higher birth weight. Access to the maternal grandmother may also be important: women whose mothers are alive have heavier newborns, but no additional benefit is observed from residing together. Co-residence with any grandparent is not associated with birth weight after controlling for the mother's partnership.     

The long arm of childhood: The influence of early-life social conditions on men’s mortality

Increasingly, social scientists are turning to childhood to gain a better understanding of the fundamental social causes of adult mortality. However, evidence of the link between childhood and the mortality of adults is fragmentary, and the intervening mechanisms remain unclear. Drawing on the National Longitudinal Survey of Older Men, our analysis shows that men's mortality is associated with an array of childhood conditions, including socioeconomic status, family living arrangements, mother's work status, rural residence, and parents' nativity. With the exception of parental nativity, socioeconomic-achievement processes in adulthood and lifestyle factors mediated these associations. Education, family income, household wealth, and occupation mediated the influence of socioeconomic status in childhood. Adult lifestyle factors, particularly body mass, mediated the effects of family living arrangements in childhood, mother's work status, and rural residence. Our findings bring into sharp focus the idea that economic and educational policies that are targeted at children's well-being are implicitly health policies with effects that reach far into the adult life course.     

Pattern and Determinants of Paternal Involvement in Childcare: An Empirical Investigation in a Metropolis of India

An analysis of various aspects of paternal involvement among Indian fathers is presented in this article. The pattern of involvement in terms of the activities participated in, and their frequency of participation have been examined. Overall level of involvement of fathers in childcare has also been determined. A number of hypotheses regarding predictors of paternal involvement have been formulated and examined with the use of empirical data. The study is based on interviews conducted with Indian couples (N = 350) having at least one child aged 10 years or younger. To understand the determinants of paternal involvement, regression has been conducted wherein paternal involvement has been regressed with 14 predictors. Results indicate that paternal involvement in childcare is mainly determined by the perception of individuals towards fatherhood—be it gender role expectations, or perception of the peer group, or fathering received by the individual fathers. Other socio-economic factors affecting paternal involvement have also been examined. As the importance of paternal involvement in childcare is increasingly being recognised, these findings have implications for programmers and policy makers. Interventions to bring about a positive change in the attitude of fathers may improve paternal participation.     

Grandparental availability for child care and maternal labor force participation: pension reform evidence from Italy

In this paper, we exploit pension reform-induced changes in retirement eligibility requirements to assess the role of grandparental childcare availability in the labor force participation of women with children under 15. Our analysis shows that, among the women studied, those whose own mothers are retirement eligible have a 11% higher probability of being in the labor force than those whose mothers are ineligible. The pension eligibility of maternal grandfathers and paternal grandparents, however, has no significant effect on the women’s labor force participation. We also demonstrate that the eligibility of maternal grandmothers mainly captures the effect of their availability for childcare. Hence, pension reforms, by potentially robbing households of an important source of flexible, low-cost childcare, could have unintended negative consequences for the employment rates of women with young children.     

Residential patterns of parents and their married children in contemporary China: A life course approach

This paper examines the residential pattern of parents and their married children in contemporary China. Using the China Health and Nutrition Survey (1991, 1993, 1997), the analysis shows that the residential pattern of parents and their married children is not a static phenomenon, but changes over the life span. The analysis provides evidence that parental residence often responds to changed circumstances over the life course, adjusting to the need of married children as well as that of their parents. It is found that childcare needs, death of one parent, and health status of parents all play important roles in transitions in parental residence.     

Cheaper by the dozen? The marginal time costs of children in the Philippines

The important relationship between fertility rates and economic development has prompted many researchers to try and better understand the determinants of family size. It has repeatedly been shown that the costs of children, both direct and indirect, are one of the most important determinants of fertility, exerting a significantly negative effect on birth rates in both developed and developing countries. Many studies which investigate the relationship between the costs of children and family size have assumed that these costs do not vary with parity. However, there is substantial evidence that the marginal costs of children are not constant but decrease with birth order in developed countries. In this paper, the hypothesis that there are diminishing marginal time costs of children is tested using household data from the developing country setting of the Philippines. By examining the determinants of additional time spent in childcare before and after the birth of a child, it is found that the marginal time costs are not the same across households of various sizes. Firstborn children cost significantly more in terms of additional mother's time than children of higher birth orders. In addition, the time costs of the second child are found to be significantly greater than those of the third child. However, these economies of scale in childcare are limited and do not extend beyond three children. The effect of birth spacing on the marginal time costs of children is also found to be significant.     

中国的家庭结构转变--来自居住方式与人口因素的作用

基于历次人口普查数据,利用SOCSIM微观模拟方法将家庭转变的关键影响因素分解为人口因素和居住方式因素两个方面,并进一步将人口因素分解为人口惯性、生育率、死亡率和结婚率四个层面进行计量分析.结果发现,当前人口变动相对稳定,较小的波动使其在家庭转变中的贡献率相对较小,而居住方式的影响相对较大;对人口因素的进一步分解还发现,人口惯性及生育率水平的作用相对更大,生育率水平、结婚率水平带来的影响与人口因素的总影响方向是一致的,均提高了一人户、一代户、二代户的人口比重,降低了三代及以上户的人口比重.与之相反,死亡率的影响与人口因素的总影响方向是相反的.     

Dual-earner parents’ work-family time: the effects of atypical work patterns and non-parental childcare

Finding time to both earn money and raise children is demanding. Within the constraints and opportunities of their employment and social policies affecting work and family, parents seeking to manage their time may use a number of strategies. For example, they can outsource childcare or adopt atypical work patterns: non-standard work schedules, self employment, working from home. In this paper we compare the effects of these measures on the household time use and gender division of labour of dual-earner couples with children, using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time Use Survey, 2006 (n?=?772 couples). We find that these strategies do help households manage their work and family time. However, this is almost exclusively a result of women changing their time use. Such measures generally enable mothers, not fathers, to adjust paid work around family commitments, and offer little amelioration of gendered divisions of labour. This reinforces normative gender-role expectations and is probably a result of institutional constraints, including sparse social policy and workplace support for mothers?? full-time employment and for fathers?? involvement in childcare.     

3岁以下随迁子女照料对流动女性就业参与的影响研究

本文把3岁以下随迁子女照料分为家庭照料和社会化托育服务,利用2016年全国流动人口动态监测调查数据,综合运用Probit模型、工具变量法以及交互效应检验,考察3岁以下随迁子女照料对流动女性就业参与的影响。研究结果表明,在纠正内生性偏误后,与母亲作为主要照料人相比,其他家庭照料主体参与照料对流动女性就业参与具有显著的正向作用。其中,父亲参与的照料能够使流动女性的就业概率提升约30%,而祖辈照料则使流动女性就业概率提升约58%。另外,选择社会化托育服务对流动女性就业参与也具有显著的正向作用。进一步的交互检验表明,母亲照料1-2岁和2-3岁随迁子女会使得其就业概率更低,分别是照料0-1岁随迁子女的9.4%和7.7%。     

Time or Money: The Relationship Between Educational Attainment,Income Contribution,and Time with Children Among Korean Fathers

Korean parents’ enthusiasm for and financial investment in children’s education are well known. However, parental time with children, particularly fathers’ time, and how it differs by parental education and income are not fully explored. Using the 2009 Korean Time Use Survey data, this paper examines how much time Korean fathers spend with children, how it differs by their education and income contribution to household, and which aspect Korean fathers choose to prioritize: time or money. In order to investigate a cross-couple effect, this paper also considers mothers’ time with children and their level of education. The sample is limited to married couples with the youngest child aged between 0 and 12. The stepwise multivariate regression analysis indicates that fathers’ education consistently shows a positive relationship with childcare time. Although fathers’ income contribution to household income has a negative effect on childcare time, positive effects of fathers’ education remain. Both mother’s education and childcare time increase fathers’ time with children. Korean fathers seem to juggle dual demands for money and time contribution and highly educated fathers tend to prioritize time over money. Given that time has become an important resource, different time investment in children by parental socioeconomic status may exacerbate social inequality.     

On the role played by household registration materials in China's 1982 population census]

The author examines the relationship between the 1982 census and the population registration system in China. Because the household registration data are so complete (they include data on permanent and temporary residence, births, deaths, and migration), they were used as a starting point for census taking. In order for the census to take advantage of household registrations, the registration data were reviewed and corrected. This both reduced the cost of taking the census and improved the quality of the registration data.     

流动人口户籍迁移意愿的分层模型研究

将2016年中国流动人口动态监测调查数据和城市特征数据进行匹配,使用非线性分层模型分析了流动人口户籍迁移意愿的影响因素。结果表明,流动人口的个人基本特征、经济状况、流动特征对户籍迁移意愿存在单独的影响,流入城市特征不存在对流动人口户籍迁移意愿的直接影响,但通过流动人口个人层面特征跨层交互作用于流动人口的户籍迁移意愿。有子女随迁和在流入地居留时间越长的流动人口户籍迁移意愿越强,流入地的教育公共服务质量越好越会强化这种倾向;已在流入地购房、受教育程度越高、女性流动人口的户籍迁移意愿更高,流入地的人口规模越大越会加强这种作用。     

Purchased child care,optimal family size and mother's employment Theory and econometric analysis

The paper develops a model of family size decisions in which couples choose explicitly a combination of mother's time and purchased childcare (e.g. childminders, nannies) for the care and rearing of children. The theoretical model implies that the impact of the mother's wage on her completed fertility varies with the market price of childcare, and that this effect increases (becoming less negative or more positive) with the level of her wage. Econometric analysis of British micro-data confirms the main predictions of the model.I am grateful to Robert E. Wright for research assistance, and to the Economic and Social Research Council for supporting this research as part of the research programme Income Inequality, Gender and Demographic Differentials. Financial support from the Nuffield Foundation grant no. PT/9, Family Formation and Employment Activity is also gratefully acknowledged.     

The Effects of Grandparents on Children’s Schooling: Evidence From Rural China

The issue of whether the social class of grandparents affects grandchildren’s socioeconomic outcomes net of the characteristics of the middle generation is much debated in the social mobility literature. Using data from the 2002 Chinese Household Income Project, we investigate the direct effects of grandparents on grandchildren’s educational attainment in rural China. We find that the influence of grandparents is contingent on living arrangements. Although the educational level of coresident grandparents directly affects the educational attainment of their grandchildren, with an effect size similar to that of parental education, the education of noncoresident and deceased grandparents does not have any effect. These findings suggest that grandparents can directly affect grandchildren’s educational outcomes through sociopsychological pathways. Our study not only adds an important case study to the literature but also sheds new light on theoretical interpretations of grandparent effects when they are found.     

Direct Valuation of Personal Care by Households

This paper valued the quantity of child, sick, and elderly care provided by households using a new, direct measure. Such measures add to the literature that estimates the size of the contribution of non-market work by household members, particularly women, and to literature about valuation of childcare. This production remains unvalued in standard national income accounts. Traditional attempts to quantify this care multiplied care-giver hours by a wage rate, a method that suffers from several drawbacks, including omitting the contributions of anything but labor, the inability to handle joint production, and the use of an arbitrary wage rate. This study avoided these problems by valuing the amount of care with its market price based on data from a small urban area. The mean value was $3,547 annually (97 percent of it childcare) for all sample households and $9,610 for those providing care. The results afforded evidence of scale economies in parental childcare and quantified care furnished by different kinds of providers.     

Temporal and Spatial Evolution Models in Local Reform in Household Registration System and Their Implications

In the process of reform on China’s household registration system after 1978, local governments have gradually taken the role of the central government, becoming the main driving forces of the reform. They have shaped the new trend of the reform by adopting different policies for different households. Examining local reform practices is, therefore, important for further relevant reforms. By sorting a large amount of laws and regulations issued by local governments about the reform on household registration system, and highlighting four polices (namely, temporary residence certificate system, blue seal household register, reform on household registration system of towns, and talents residential certificate system), this paper analyzes the temporal and spatial evolutive trajectory and rules , from the perspective of diffusion, explores the proliferation laws, and provides policy implications.     

The effect of female migration on infant and child survival in Uganda

This article uses data from the 1996 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey to examine whether migration of women improves the survival chances of their children to age five. We expand on prior research by testing not only the hypothesized positive effect of rural-urban migration, but also the effects of other migration stream behaviours on child survival. Results show that up to 10% of children die before age five and within-group differences in mortality exist among urban and rural children depending on their mother's migration status. Only urban-urban migration was significantly related to child survival, compared to rural non-migrants, after controlling for other factors, although other streams of migration (rural-urban, urban-rural, rural-rural) were positively related to child survival. Generally, migration explains a small component of the variance in child survival. Several other factors, including parents' education, household size, household headship, mother's age at birth, duration of breastfeeding, and place of delivery have a significant predictive power on child survival.     

The effect of welfare eligibility on the labor force participation of women of Mexican origin in California

The relationship between AFDC, Food Stamp, and Medi-Cal Program eligibility, on the one hand, and labor force participation, on the other, was analyzed by comparing the labor force participation rates of women of Mexican origin who were fully eligible for these programs with those of less eligible women. Marital status, husband's income, and legal residence in the United States were used to define levels of program eligibility for this sample. The effects of education, English fluency, age, the number and ages of children, and the number of other adults in the household (excluding the mother and spouse) were controlled in logistic regression procedures. The results of the multivariate analyses show that AFDC, food stamps, and Medi-Cal combined inhibit the labor force participation of unmarried mothers. There is no evidence, however, that food stamps and Medi-Cal influence the labor force participation of married mothers. Earnings information on this sample of California women indicate that welfare benefits for unmarried mothers are highly competitive with net earnings, primarily because of the cost childcare. The data imply that free or subsidized childcare would increase labor force participation and reduce AFDC enrollment.     

中国未来“第二次人口红利”探讨——基于人口年龄结构与居民储蓄关系的分析

我国人口形势的新变化直接影响未来经济发展的潜力和活力。在人口环境发生剧烈变化的背景下开展关于第二次人口红利的讨论和研究非常必要。本文在以往相关文献的研究基础上,定位分析我国储蓄率的高水平特征,从人口变化、政策、社保等多个角度探讨未来储蓄持续走高的可能性。并利用全国30个省市地区的面板数据重点分析人口结构与居民储蓄之间的关系,发现老年抚养比与居民储蓄之间存在显著的负相关关系。文章得出结论,“第二次人口红利”在我国难以实现,抓紧开发第一次人口红利、拉动经济增长才是我国现阶段社会经济发展的重点。     

Family life course transitions and rural Household economy during China’s market reform

This article investigates the effect of family life course transitions on labor allocation strategies in rural Chinese households. We highlight three types of economic activity that involve reallocation of household labor oriented toward a more diversified, nonfarm rural economy: involvement in wage employment, household entrepreneurship, and/or multiple activities that span economic sectors. With the use of data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS 1997, 2000, and 2004), our longitudinal analyses of rural household economic activity point to the significance of household demography, life course transitions, and local economic structures as factors facilitating household labor reallocation. First, as expected, a relatively youthful household structure is conducive to innovative economic behavior. Second, household entrances and exits are significant, but their impacts are not equal. Life events such as births, deaths, marriage, or leaving home for school or employment affect household economy in distinctive ways. Finally, the reallocations of household labor undertaken by households are shaped by local economic structures: in particular, the extent of village-level entrepreneurial activity, off-farm employment, and out-migration.