The Time Cost of Children: a cross-national comparison of the interaction between time use and fertility rate

1. The Time Cost of Children: a cross-national comparison of the interaction between time use and fertility rate Lyn Craig Social Policy Research Centre University of New South Waleslcraig@unsw.edu.au COMPARING TIME - The 25th IATUR Conference on Time Use Research, 17-19 September2003, Brussels, Belgium

2. Dimensions of low fertility • More women have no children (increased childlessness) • Women have fewer children (smaller families)

3. Fertility theory 1 • Children as a consumption good (Becker 1981) • Rational calculation of costs and benefits • Major cost is opportunity cost of mothers’ time • Major benefit is “utility” derived from children • Final family size is “revealed preference” • Assumptions • Joint utility function for households • Assessing the future – before vs after becoming a parent

4. Fertility theory 2 • Work-family compatibility • Maternal work-force participation now positively correlated with fertility • Argument • Mismatch between public and private social institutions. “When women have similar opportunities to men in work and education, but these opportunities are severely curtailed after becoming mothers, women will limit the number of children they have” (McDonald 2000) • Assumptions • Family members may have different interests • Final family size not necessarily preferred • Assessing the future – before vs after becoming a parent

5. Fertility theory 3 • Domestic gender equity • Bargaining theory • Argument • If domestic labour of partners is very unequal, women will withdraw their contribution to “household public goods” even at the cost of not having something they value (Widmalm 1998) • Assumptions • Family members may have different interests • Final family size not necessarily preferred • Assessing the present

6. Comparing policies through welfare regime typology • Comparative international research is a “natural experiment” on effects of policy variation (Castles 2002) • Esping-Andersen (1990) • 3 pillars of welfare (states, markets, families) • 3-way grouping (liberal, corporatist, social democratic) • Major criterion “decommodification” • Feminist criticism: to be meaningful for women,welfare regime classification has to more fully acknowledge family inputs (unpaid work) • Familialisation (Esping-Andersen 1999)

7. Typology (Korpi) and examples • Dual earner (Scandinavian e.g. Norway) • General family support (Western European e.g. Germany) • Most extreme reliance on family resources (Southern European e.g Italy) • Market oriented (Anglo-Saxon e.g. Australia)

8. Country comparison • Female workforce participation before and after having children

9. Hypotheses Countries in which the birth rates are highest will be those in which • H1: The time commitment of parents is most similar to that of non-parents • total workload • unpaid workload • H2: The division of labour following parenthood is most equitable (highest ratio of male to female unpaid work time) • H3: Mothers are most able to combine work and family (highest ratio of paid to unpaid work)

10. Data • Multi-national Time Use Study World 5.5. • Sub-sample • Individuals in couple-headed families in • Australia: survey year 1992 N=5905 • Germany: survey year 1992 N=7761 • Italy: survey year 1989 N=13457 • Norway: survey year 1990 N=2644

11. Method • Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis • Dependent variables: • daily hours spent in total work (paid and unpaid) • daily hours spent in unpaid work (subset of total work) • Independent variables: • nationality • sex • age of youngest child, and • interactions between them

12. Method • Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis • Control variables • Age • Income • Educational status • Number of children • Day of the week • Spouse’s labour force status • Labour force status (when dependent variable does not include paid work)

13. Results • Model 1 • Slight variation cross nationally in total work, almost all accounted for by unpaid work • Women average 40 minutes more total work and over 3 hours more unpaid work than men daily • Model 2 • Italian womendo by far the most work, both total and unpaid, and Norwegian women do least • Italian men do much less work, both total and unpaid than men in other countries. • Model 3 • Time demand of parenthood cross nationally is higher the younger the child

14. Testing hypothesis 1 (total work) • Parents’ total workload as a percentage of non-parents’ total workload

15. Testing hypothesis 1 (unpaid work) • Parents’ unpaid workload as a percentage of non-parents’ unpaid workload

16. Testing hypothesis 2 • Male unpaid work as a percentage of female unpaid work

17. Testing hypothesis 3 • Percentage of female total work time that is paid

18. Testing fertility theories • Children as a consumption good • Revealed preference is questionableif gender inequity and work-family incompatibilityact as barriers to optimal family size • Work-family compatibility • Birth rates are higher in countries where women’s unpaid work time is lowest. • But outcomes do not reflect assessment of post-parental situation • Domestic gender equity • Birth rates are higher in countries with more equal division of domestic labour • Outcomes do reflect assessment of situation prior to becoming a parent (or having more children)

19. Major findings • Birth rates are higher in countries with more equal division of domestic labour • Birth rates are higher in countries where women’s proportional time in paid work is highest • But • Correspondence between above measures and birth rate ranking is closest for childless, suggesting domestic inequity and work-family incompatibilityact as barriers to subsequent fertility.

20. Implications for policy • Implies that policy intended to encourage a higher birth rate should not only be addressed to parental situation, but to pre-parental conditions, and should include • policies that encourage male participation in unpaid work both before and after fatherhood • policies that encourage female participation in paid work both before and after motherhood