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The Response of Parental Time Investments to the Child's Skills and Health

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  • Nicoletti, Cheti

    (University of York)

  • Tonei, Valentina

    (University of Southampton)

Abstract

Recent empirical research in family economics has shown the importance of parental investments on child's human capital development, but it is still not clear whether parents respond to changes across time in their child's skills and health. Using the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, we measure parental investments by considering the time parents spend with their child doing formative activities. By adopting a child fixed-effect instrumental variable estimation to address endogeneity issues, we find that parents reinforce for differences in their child's socio-emotional skills, compensate for changes in her physical health, and are neutral to variation in her cognitive skills.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicoletti, Cheti & Tonei, Valentina, 2017. "The Response of Parental Time Investments to the Child's Skills and Health," IZA Discussion Papers 10993, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10993
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    6. Nguyen, Ha Trong & Christian, Hayley & Le, Huong Thu & Connelly, Luke & Zubrick, Stephen R. & Mitrou, Francis, 2021. "The impact of weather on time allocation to physical activity and sleep of child-parent dyads," GLO Discussion Paper Series 886, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
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    8. Nicoletti, Cheti & Sevilla, Almudena & Tonei, Valentina, 2022. "Gender stereotypes in the family," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118044, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Ha Trong Nguyen & Luke B. Connelly & Huong Thu Le & Francis Mitrou & Catherine L. Taylor & Stephen R. Zubrick, 2020. "Ethnicity differentials in academic achievements: the role of time investments," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1381-1418, October.
    10. Nicoletti, Cheti & Tonei, Valentina, 2020. "Do parental time investments react to changes in child’s skills and health?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    time-use; family investment; quality time; skills; child development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation

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