Volume 15, Number 2 (Spring) 1980

Hill, C. Russell, and Frank P. Stafford. 1980. "Parental Care of Children: Time Diary Estimates of Quantity, Predictability, and Variety." Journal of Human Resources 15(2):219-239.

Time inputs to children are measured using data from the recent Time Use Survey conducted by the University of Michigan. We analyze time parents devote to their children, particularly in their preschool years, in an attempt to find out if there are social-class and education-of-wife differentials in this particular time use that may provide some insight into the intergenerational transmission of income inequality. We also offer some comment on labor supply of women and child care by men. We find that more-educated women spend more time playing with children, helping with the teaching of children, and in child-related travel.

Hill is Associate Professor of Economics, University of South Carolina. Stafford is Professor of Economics, University of Michigan. Copyright © 1980 by C. Russell Hill and Frank P. Stafford. Research for this paper was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation Special Projects Division and from the NSF Office of National R and D Assessment. The research reflects the authors' views rather than those of any federal agency. We would like to thank Ronald Lee, Peter Lindert, F. Thomas Juster, and Robert B. Zajonc for comments on an earlier version. Dorothy Kempter provided able research assistance.


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