The Role of Economic Incentives and Attitudes in Participation and Childcare Decisions

• Published in: Journal of family and economic issues 2013-09, Vol.34 (3), p.296-313
• Main Author: van Gameren, Edwin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitudes; Child care; Decision making; Economic incentives; Economic models; Economic statistics; Economic theory; Employment; Families & family life; Family; Households; Hypotheses; Incentives; Labor economics; Labor force; Mothers; Netherlands; Original Paper; Parents & parenting; Part time employment; Participation; Personality and Social Psychology; Price elasticity; Social conditions & trends; Social Policy; Social Sciences; Sociology; Sociology of the family. Age groups; Sociology of work; Sociology of work and sociology of organizations; Studies; Wages & salaries; Woman social status. Women's emancipation; Working mothers; Working population. Employment. Women's work
• ISSN: 1058-0476; 1573-3475
• DOI: 10.1007/s10834-012-9332-1

We analyzed the participation and childcare decisions made by mothers in two-parent households with children aged 0–12 in the Netherlands, paying special attention to the role of attitudes regarding work and care. In a multinomial logit model we distinguished between not working, a small part-time job, and a larger job. For working mothers we considered no childcare, informal, and formal childcare. We accounted for potential endogeneity of attitudes. The results showed that the role of the price of formal childcare in the decision-making process was negligible. A higher earnings capacity increased the take-up of larger jobs and formal childcare. Modern attitudes had a strong impact on the decisions to work and to use childcare.