Boy-Girl Differences in Parental Time Investments: Evidence from Three Countries
Michael Baker, Kevin Milligan
NBER Working Paper No. 18893
Issued in March 2013
NBER Program(s): CH
We study differences in the time parents spend with boys and girls at preschool ages in Canada, the UK and the US. We refine previous evidence that fathers commit more time to boys, showing this greater commitment emerges with age and is not present for very young children. We next examine differences in specific parental teaching activities such as reading and the use of number and letters. We find the parents commit more of this time to girls, starting at ages as young as 9 months. We explore possible explanations of this greater commitment to girls including explicit parental preference and boy-girl differences in costs of these time inputs. Finally, we offer evidence that these differences in time inputs are important: in each country the boy-girl difference in inputs can account for a non-trivial proportion of the boy-girl difference in preschool reading and math scores.
How is this working paper "of interest" to you, Daniel? Are you getting more interested in the economic analysis of education and family?
ReplyDeleteI expected you to post this one: http://papers.nber.org/papers/w18887
ReplyDeleteEffects of Welfare Reform on Women's Crime
Hope Corman, Dhaval M. Dave, Nancy E. Reichman
NBER Working Paper No. 18887
Issued in March 2013
NBER Program(s): CH HC HE LE LS
We investigate the effects of broad-based work incentives on female crime by exploiting the welfare reform legislation of the 1990s, which dramatically increased employment among women at risk for relying on cash assistance. We find that welfare reform decreased female property crime arrests by 4–5%, but did not affect other types of crimes. The effects appear to be stronger in states with lower welfare benefits and higher earnings disregards, and in states with larger caseload declines. The findings point to broad-based work incentives—and, by inference, employment—as a key determinant of female property crime.
We explore possible explanations of this greater commitment to girls including explicit parental preference and boy-girl differences in costs of these time inputs.
ReplyDeleteIs this because boys develop slower than girls?