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Household impacts of child health shocks

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  • Evelyn Skoy

    (Hamilton College)

Abstract

Women bear a disproportionate share of the unpaid labor within a household, which contributes to gender gaps in life and relationship satisfaction. This paper examines how an exogenous shock that increases the workload within the household impacts the burden of unpaid labor. By exploiting a rich longitudinal dataset from Australia, I estimate the gendered impacts to parental workload and stress, life and relationship satisfaction, and household division of labor when parents have a child with a significant health shock. I find evidence that women experience a decrease in their satisfaction with parenting and life satisfaction. These results are most pronounced for households where the mother is less active in the labor market or less educated. Point estimates indicate that men do not experience the same negative effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Evelyn Skoy, 2024. "Household impacts of child health shocks," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-28, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:37:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s00148-024-01003-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-024-01003-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Health shocks; Gender; Household; Satisfaction;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I14 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Inequality
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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