How Does the Presence of Children Affect Dependent Care? A Psycho-Economic Approach

José Ignacio Gimenez-Nadal (ngimenez@unizar.es), Miriam Marcén and José Alberto Molina
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José Ignacio Gimenez-Nadal: University of Zaragoza
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Jose Ignacio Gimenez-Nadal (ngimenez@unizar.es)

No 2726, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper adopts a psycho-economic approach, based on the "Demonstration Effect" hypothesis, to analyze the effects that the presence of children has on the time devoted to elder care. We combine the approach of the Social Cognitive Theory and a three-generation altruism model. Using the 2003 Spanish Time Use Survey (STUS), we confirm the "Demonstration Effect", i.e, the presence of children, while parents are engaged in elder care activities, increases by 11.63% the time devoted to these activities. Additionally, we find that time devoted to child care as primary activity increases by 11.19 minutes per day when children are present during adult care activities.

Keywords: children; dependent care; psycho-economic approach; demonstration effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 D64 J13 J14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 46 pages
Date: 2007-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age and nep-cbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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