TIME TO GROW UP? ADULT CHILDREN AS DETERMINANTS OF PARENTAL LABOR SUPPLY

Breno Braga; Olga Malkova

doi:10.1093/jeea/jvad051

TIME TO GROW UP? ADULT CHILDREN AS DETERMINANTS OF PARENTAL LABOR SUPPLY

Breno Braga
, Olga Malkova

Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

As children transition to adulthood, do they remain a major determinant of parental labor supply? To answer this question, we examine how college costs affect the labor supply of mothers and fathers by exploiting the roll-out of nine generous state merit aid programs in the United States from 1993 to 2004, which made college more affordable. Mothers of college-age children decreased their annual hours of work after the introduction of these state-wide programs, while fathers did not adjust their labor supply. Mothers of college-going children were entirely responsible for the decline in hours of work, where mothers of children who did not go to college experienced no change in hours of work. The decline in labor supply was mainly due to adjustments among high-income, married, more educated, and white mothers, whose labor supply was more elastic to college costs.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	230-262
Number of pages	33
Journal	Journal of the European Economic Association
Volume	22
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvad051
State	Published - Feb 1 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of European Economic Association. All rights reserved.

Funding

We are grateful to David Agrawal, Martha Bailey, Sandy Baum, John Bound, Celeste Carruthers, Matthew Chingos, Raj Darolia, David Frisvold, Brad Hershbein, Steven Lugauer, Terra McKinnish, Melinda Pitts, Ken Troske, Sarah Turner, Elizabeth Handwerker, Jim Ziliak, and seminar participants at the Association for Education Finance and Policy Conference, Southern Economic Association Meetings, Washington Area Labor Economics Symposium, Population Association of America, Society of Government Economists, Society of Labor Economists, Oberlin College, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Tennessee, and the University of Kentucky for helpful comments. A previous version of this paper circulated with the title Hope for the Family: The Effects of College Costs on Maternal Labor Supply. Braga and Malkova are affiliated with IZA.

Funders
Oberlin College, University of Colorado Boulder
Society of Government Economists, Society of Labor Economists
University of Tennessee
University of Kentucky

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Economics, Econometrics and Finance

Access to Document

10.1093/jeea/jvad051

Cite this

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TIME TO GROW UP? ADULT CHILDREN AS DETERMINANTS OF PARENTAL LABOR SUPPLY

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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