Human Capital of Young Children and Time Squeeze of Their Parents

Wei-Jun Jean Yeung, New York University
Frank Stafford, University of Michigan

This paper examines the intra-family resource allocation through children's time diaries collected in the 1997 Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We examine two types of trade offs parents make in time allocation: (1) tradeoffs between investing time in children and in parents themselves, and (2) that between investing in the market career of the husband and that of the wife. Our analysis focuses on a strategy of work-family balance -- the temporal distribution of time with children between weekdays and weekends. Mothers who have high earnings and education maximize their goals by spending less time in play/companionship activities with their children but attempt to make up for that by spending more time with them on weekends, particularly in activities that enhances children's human capital. Fathers with high human capital also spend selectively more time with children in achievement related activities, particularly on weekends.