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Formation of Children's Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Skills: Is All Parental Time Equal?

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  • Hélène Le Forner

    (AMSE - Aix-Marseille Sciences Economiques - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - AMU - Aix Marseille Université - ECM - École Centrale de Marseille - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Although it is recognized that parental time is a strong determinant of child development, little is known about heterogeneity across the effects of parental time. Using the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Children, I model the cognitive and socio-emotional skills production functions for children born in 1999-2000, from 4 to 11 years old, using, among others, a cumulative value-added and a generalized method of moments model. I find that the effect on children's verbal and socioemotional skills of time spent on educational activities with the father is smaller than that with the mother or both parents together. For socio-emotional skills, this difference seems to be driven by fathers who spend little time with their children.

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  • Hélène Le Forner, 2021. "Formation of Children's Cognitive and Socio-Emotional Skills: Is All Parental Time Equal?," Working Papers halshs-03160526, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-03160526
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03160526
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    child development; cognitive skills; socio-emotional skills; parental time investment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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