The Stress Cost of Children

Hielke Buddelmeyer, Daniel S. Hamermesh and Mark Wooden
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Hielke Buddelmeyer: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne; and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Daniel S. Hamermesh: Department of Economics and CentER, Tilburg University; Department of Economics, The University of Melbourne; CESifo (Munich); Centre for Economic Policy Research (London); and Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: We use longitudinal data describing couples in Australia from 2001-12 and Germany from 2002-12 to examine how demographic events affect perceived time and financial stress. Consistent with the view of measures of stress as proxies for the Lagrangean multipliers in models of household production, we show that births increase time stress, especially among mothers, and that the effects last at least several years. Births generally also raise financial stress slightly. The monetary equivalent of the costs of the extra time stress is very large. While the departure of a child from the home reduces parents’ time stress, its negative impacts on the tightness of the time constraints are much smaller than the positive impacts of a birth.

Keywords: Births; children; financial stress; GSOEP; HILDA Survey; time stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45pp
Date: 2015-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-ltv and nep-mfd
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Stress Cost of Children (2015)
Working Paper: The Stress Cost of Children (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2015n01

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