This paper considers the simultaneous relationship of the single mother’s decision to choose paid childcare, welfare participation and labor supply, and estimates a structural model that allows for a free error covariance. We use a discrete approach to the choice of labor supply together with the discrete choices of utilized paid childcare and welfare participation, which allow formulating the model as a multiple-choice problem. The results show that there is an association between social assistance, paid childcare and labor supply, but that the relationship is non-symmetric. An increase in the social assistance norms has a relatively small effect on paid childcare utilization, but a relatively larger effect on the mean labor supply. In contrast, a corresponding reduction in the childcare cost has a relatively large effect on the social assistance utilization but a relatively small effect on the mean labor supply. Our estimates suggest that a decrease in childcare cost increases the labor supply of those working rather than encourages non-workers to start work, which implies that childcare cost is foremost a barrier to fulltime work rather then a barrier to work at all.
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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Göteborg University, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers in Economics with number
82.
Length: 40 pages Date of creation: 30 Sep 2002 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Labour Economics, 2003, pages 133-147. Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0082
Note: Published as "The choice of paid childcare, welfare, and labor supply of single mothers" in Labour Economics Contact details of provider: Postal: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University Box 640, SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG, Sweden Phone: 031-773 10 00 Web page: http://www.handels.gu.se/econ/ More information through EDIRC
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