Who takes care of the children? The quantity-quality model revisited

Henry Ohlsson and Michael Lundholm ()

Journal of Population Economics, 2002, vol. 15, issue 3, 455-461

Abstract: We study the Becker and Lewis (1973) quantity-quality model of children adding an explicit child care time constraint for parents. Parents can take care of the children themselves or purchase day care. Our results are: (i) If there only is own care, a quantity-quality trade-off, different from that of Becker and Lewis (1973), arises. The income effect on fertility is positive if child quantity is a closer complement than child quality to the consumption of goods. (ii) If, instead, there is a combination of purchased and own care, the effect of income on fertility is ambiguous, even if quantity of children is a normal good in the standard sense. This is the Becker and Lewis (1973) result extended to a situation with a binding child care time constraint. The conclusion is that the Becker and Lewis (1973) result holds as long as at least some child care is purchased.

Keywords: Fertility; ·; child; care; ·; quantity-quality; trade-off (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D1 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-08-02
Note: Received: 12 November 1999/Accepted: 1 September 2000
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Who Takes Care of the Children? The Quantity-Quality Model Revisited (1998)
Working Paper: Who Takes Care of the Children? The Quantity-Quality Model Revisited (1998)
Working Paper: Who Takes Care of the Children? The quantity–quality model revisited (1998)
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