Decomposing the effects of children's health on mother's labor supply: is it time or money?
Decomposing the effects of children's health on mother's labor supply: is it time or money?
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DOI：
10.1002/hec.891
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发表时间：
2004-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Gould, E
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gould, E
在本文中，我探讨了儿童的健康如何影响母亲的工资和工作时间。有些孩子患有的疾病需要昂贵的药物或治疗，但几乎不需要父母的时间。另一些则需要大量的时间；还有一些人在一天中不可预测的时间需要护理。我构建了一个母亲劳动力供给的理论模型，其中明确包含了与不健康儿童的存在相关的财务和时间成本。该模型预测，患有时间密集型疾病和不可预测疾病的儿童会对母亲的劳动力供给产生负面影响，而患有经济成分较强的疾病的儿童会对母亲的劳动力供给产生积极影响。为了实证检验这一点，我组织了一个由医生组成的焦点小组，根据疾病和残疾所需的资源类型对他们进行分类。我使用 1997 年 PSID 儿童发展补充资料估计了这些要求对母亲工作决定和工作时间的影响。在控制了疾病的经济负担后，如果孩子患有时间密集型疾病，单身母亲会减少工作时间；如果孩子患有严重的病情且时间成分不可预测，已婚母亲则不太可能工作，并且工作时间也会减少。这些发现与理论模型一致，并强调需要分解儿童健康对母亲工作状况的影响。各种疾病汇总的模型规范无法消除这些影响，因此可能会低估家庭中有一个生病的孩子的福利成本。版权所有 (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.
In this paper, I explore how children's health influences the wages and work hours of their mother. Some children have illnesses that require expensive medicine or treatment, but demand little parental time. Others require extraordinary amounts of time; and still others require care at unpredictable times of the day. I construct a theoretical model of mother's labor supply that explicitly incorporates the financial and time costs associated with the presence of unhealthy children. The model predicts that children with time-intensive illnesses and those with unpredictable illnesses negatively influence mother's labor supply, whereas children with illnesses with a strong financial component have a positive effect on mother's labor supply. In order to empirically test this, I organize a focus group of doctors to categorize illnesses and disabilities by the type of resources they require. Using the 1997 PSID Child Development Supplement, I estimate the effects of these requirements on mother's decision to work and work hours. After controlling for the financial burden of the illness, single mothers work fewer hours if their child has a time-intensive illness and married mothers are less likely to work and work fewer hours if their child has a severe condition with an unpredictable time component. These findings are consistent with the theoretical model and highlight the need to decompose the effects of child health on mother's work status. Model specifications that aggregate across illnesses are incapable of disentangling these effects and may therefore underestimate the welfare costs of having a sick child in the family. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.