Childcare Service and Fertility
摘要
Parenting can be approached either by dedicating personal time to childcare or by using childcare services available in the market. In most cases, both methods are effectively combined to raise children. When personal time is dedicated to childcare, it often comes at the expense of working hours, which constitutes the opportunity cost of parenting. On the other hand, using childcare services incurs a fee for those services. This chapter demonstrates how the wage gap between spouses affects the amount of time spent on childcare and the demand for childcare services. It reveals that narrowing the wage gap between spouses reduces the time spent on childcare but increases the demand for childcare services. Furthermore, by extending the model to a two-goods model (comprising the childcare services sector and the final goods production sector), the chapter examines the determinants of the demand for childcare services and birth rates.