The EITC and Maternal Time Use: More Time Working and Less Time with Kids? / Jacob Bastian, Lance Lochner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bastian, Jacob.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Lochner, Lance.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w27717.

NBER working paper series no. w27717

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2020.

Summary:

Parents spend considerable sums investing in their children's development, with their own time among the most important forms of investment. Given well-documented effects of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on maternal labor supply, it is natural to ask how the EITC affects other time allocation decisions, especially time with children. We use the American Time Use Surveys to study the effects of EITC expansions since 2003 on time devoted to a broad array of activities, with considerable attention to the amount and nature of time spent with children. Our results confirm prior evidence that the EITC increases maternal work and reduces time devoted to home production and leisure, especially among unmarried women. More novel, we show that the EITC also reduces time spent with children; however, almost none of this reduction comes from time devoted to active investment-related activities that are most likely to foster child development.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2020.