Child Care, Time Allocation, and the Life Cycle

Abstract: This study explores the impact of gender differences in preferences and productivity in home production on the time allocation in married couples, particularly in relation to childcare responsibilities. Using aggregated data from Japan, we estimate a life-cycle model that tracks the development of a child from infancy to adulthood by extending the work of Blundell et al. (2018). Our findings reveal a decrease in maternal earnings following childbirth, aligning with the empirical evidence of the child penalty. However, the model's projections and the actual data diverge significantly during the phase of maternal earnings recovery, showing a discrepancy of approximately 50%, the size of which implies an involuntary reduction in the wife's market work earnings.