Children and Parents Time Use: Empirical Evidence on Investment in Human Capital in France, Italy and Germany

Ana Rute Cardoso, Elsa Fontainha and Chiara Monfardini

No 3815, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We analyze a mechanism that has been disregarded in the literature on parental investment in children, as little attention has been devoted to the choices made by children themselves. We model directly time use by youngsters into activities related to the acquisition of human capital, considering not just the decision on study time, but also on socialization/networking at young age, which can enhance personal interaction skills. We provide new empirical evidence for three European countries (France, Italy and Germany) on the link between time allocation by parents and time allocation by youngsters, highlighting country-specific patterns as well as cross-country differences. We run fractional regression models and double hurdle models on multi-member household micro data on time use. Countries diverge concerning the association between parents and youngsters allocation of time to socializing and to reading and studying activities, with Italy standing out as the country where that association, in particular between youngster and mother, is strongest. Our results are consistent with different mechanisms: parental role model directly influencing children behavior, intergenerational transmission of preferences, or network effects, as individuals adapt their behavior to social patterns.

Keywords: fractional regression models; double hurdle models; networking; socializing; intergenerational transmission of preferences; youth; study time (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C24 J13 J22 J24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30 pages
Date: 2008-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: Review of Economics of the Household, 2010, 8 (4), 479-504

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp3815.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Children and parents time use: Empirical evidence on investment in human capital in France, Italy and Germany (2008)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp3815

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany
library@iza.org

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte (hinte@iza.org).