Time for Children: Trends in the Employment Patterns of Parents, 1967-2009

Liana Fox (), Han Wen-Jui (), Christopher Ruhm and Jane Waldfogel ()
Additional contact information
Liana Fox: Columbia University
Han Wen-Jui: Columbia University
Jane Waldfogel: Columbia University

No 5761, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Utilizing data from the 1967-2009 years of the March Current Population Surveys, we examine two important resources for children's well- being: time and money. We document trends in parental employment, from the perspective of children, and show what underlies these trends. We find that increases in family work hours mainly reflect movements into jobs by parents who, in prior decades, would have remained at home. This increase in market work has raised incomes for children in the typical two-parent family but not for those in lone-parent households. Time use data from 1975 and 2003-2008 reveal that working parents spend less time engaged in primary childcare than their counterparts without jobs but more than employed peers in previous cohorts. Analysis of 2004 work schedule data suggests that non-daytime work provides an alternative method of coordinating employment schedules for some dual-earner families.

Keywords: coordinated work schedules; parental employment; child care time; work family balance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2011-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Demography, 2013, 50 (1), 25-49

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Related works:
Journal Article: Time for Children: Trends in the Employment Patterns of Parents, 1967–2009 (2013)
Working Paper: Time for Children: Trends in the Employment Patterns of Parents, 1967-2009 (2011)
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