scholarly journals Parental time restrictions and the cost of children: insights from a survey among mothers

Author(s):  
Melanie Borah ◽  
Andreas Knabe ◽  
Kevin Pahlke

AbstractAn important aspect when analyzing economic inequality between households with children is time. At given monetary incomes, the material well-being of families may be very different depending on how much time parents have at their disposal. In this paper, we provide estimates of the subjectively perceived cost of children depending on the extent of parental time restrictions. Building on a study by Koulovatianos, Schröder and Schmidt (J. Bus. Econ. Stat. 27:42–51, 2009) that introduces a novel way of using subjective income evaluation data for such estimations, we conduct a refined version of the underlying survey, focusing on young women with children in Germany. Our study confirms that the perceived monetary cost of children is substantial and increases with parental nonmarket time restrictions. The experienced loss in material living standards associated with supplying time to the labor market is sizeable for families with children.

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rocio Garcia-Diaz

Abstract This paper compares alternative demand-based equivalence scales for the cost of children to assess child poverty in Mexico. The models estimated here range from single-equation models, such as those of Engel and Rothbarth, to a complete demand system approach with fixed price effects. The results found in this study favor the generalization of the complete demand system equivalence scales over the other models. Despite the differences in the alternative models, the ranking of households with children and overall populations is insensitive to different equivalence scales and poverty lines used. However, variation in the composition of poor households with children has a different effect depending on the particular choice of equivalence scale. We found that, for households with more than the country's average number of children, poverty incidence is considerably higher than in the population as a whole.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-94
Author(s):  
Tess Penne ◽  
Tine Hufkens ◽  
Tim Goedemé ◽  
Bérénice Storms

In order to alleviate child poverty, contemporary European welfare states have shifted their focus increasingly towards child-centred investment strategies. However, studies examining the generosity of welfare states to families with children focus mainly on cash benefit packages, or on government expenditure, while not taking into account the actual out-of-pocket costs families have to make to fulfil their needs. This article aims at contributing to existing studies by: (1) empirically assessing the needs and costs of children across welfare states by making use of cross-nationally comparable reference budgets, while taking into account publicly provided or subsidised services; (2) simulating the cash benefits and taxes that affect households with children through the tax–benefit system, by making use of the new Hypothetical Household Tool (HHoT) in EUROMOD; and (3) combining both types of information in order to compare the essential out-of-pocket costs for children between 6 and 18 years old with the simulated cash benefit packages. We propose a new indicator that can be used to assess welfare state generosity to families with children: the child cost compensation indicator. The use of the indicator is empirically illustrated by comparing six European welfare states: Belgium, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Spain. The article shows that, even though with important cross-national variation, cash transfers generally amount to less than 60 percent of the cost of children. Although in five out of six countries support for families is higher at the lower end of the income distribution, for households living on a low gross wage, the income of a family with children is less adequate compared to a similar childless family and is in many cases insufficient to participate adequately in society.


2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Courtney L. Whitt ◽  
Stephanie L. Donnelly ◽  
Greer Findura ◽  
Guerda Nicolas

Author(s):  
Vitaly Lobas ◽  
◽  
Elena Petryaeva ◽  

The article deals with modern mechanisms for managing social protection of the population by the state and the private sector. From the point of view of forms of state regulation of the sphere of social protection, system indicators usually include the state and dynamics of growth in the standard of living of the population, material goods, services and social guarantees for the poorly provided segments of the population. The main indicator among the above is the state of the consumer market, as one of the main factors in the development of the state. Priority areas of public administration with the use of various forms of social security have been identified. It should be emphasized that, despite the legislative conflicts that exist today in Ukraine, mandatory indexation of the cost of living is established, which is associated with inflation. Various scientists note that although the definition of the cost of living index has a well-established methodology, there are quite a lot of regional features in the structure of consumption. All this is due to restrictions that are included in the consumer basket of goods and different levels of socio-economic development of regions. The analysis of the establishment and periodic review of the minimum consumer budgets of the subsistence minimum and wages of the working population and the need to form state insurance funds for unforeseen circumstances is carried out. Considering in this context the levers of state management of social guarantees of the population, we drew attention to the crisis periods that are associated with the market transformation of the regional economy. In these conditions, there is a need to develop and implement new mechanisms and clusters in the system of socio-economic relations. The components of the mechanisms ofstate regulation ofsocial guarantees of the population are proposed. The deepening of market relations in the process of reforming the system of social protection of the population should be aimed at social well-being.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Farrukh Mahmood ◽  
Shumaila Hashim ◽  
Uzma Iram ◽  
Muhammad Zubair Chishti

Wage disparities research hardly incorporate for the cost of living differences due to data restriction, while the wage disparity issue is the crucial area of economist interest. The study aims to examine the wage disparities between high and low wage cities for Punjab and Sindh province of Pakistan with and without the cost of living, deploying the data of Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey (PSLM) with Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) for 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2013. Applying the Oaxaca-Blinder estimation method, the findings infer that wage dispersion is high without the cost of living model for both provinces (Punjab and Sindh) as compared to with cost of the living model. Moreover, the results reveal that the wage dispersion is greater in Punjab province than Sindh province. For policymakers, our study suggests that the cost of living is an essential component of the wage dispersion in Pakistan’s cities; it should be considered while formulating for wage policy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 42-46
Author(s):  
G. T. PULATOVA ◽  
◽  
T. A. KADYROV ◽  

This article considers the direct connection of the state of living of the population with the structures of the economy. In this regard, it is noted that the territorial aspects of the structure of the economy are also factors in shaping the structure of people 's needs, despite the fact that the latter are poorly structured. The study showed that the extent of structural changes in the economy, apart from the needs of the population, is affected by such critical proportions as the ratio of production to consumption, the savings fund to consumption fund, industry and agriculture, growth of production and transport development, growth of cash incomes of the population and their commodity coverage. In total production theoretical analysis has also shown that structural changes in the economy depend on the level of change in the share of each sector of the economy At the same time, changes also affect economic growth and human well-being in different ways.


Author(s):  
Marii Paskov ◽  
Joan E. Madia ◽  
Tim Goedemé

This chapter complements the income-based measures of living standards on which earlier chapters have focused by incorporating non-income dimensions of economic well-being into its analysis, including indicators of material deprivation, economic burdens, and financial stress. It analyses how working-age households around and below the middle of the income distribution fared in European countries in the years before, during, and after the Great Recession. Harmonized household-level data across the members of the EU are analysed to see whether the evolution of these various non-income measures present a similar or different picture to household incomes over time. To probe what lies behind the patterns this reveals, four quite different countries are then examined in greater depth. Finally, the chapter also explores the relationship between material deprivation for households around and below the middle and overall income inequality.


Young ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 110330882098605
Author(s):  
Roger Soler-i-Martí ◽  
Andreu Camprubí Trepat ◽  
Ester Oliveras ◽  
Mireia Sierra Andrés

This article analyses to what extent the social and solidarity economy (SSE), the aim of which is to prioritize people’s needs and well-being, can offer young people education-to-work transitions conditions and opportunities which are different from those in the conventional economy. The very nature of SSE means that it is especially suitable for challenging gender inequality and proves to be exceptionally useful for testing feminist economics. Against a backdrop of economic crisis, SSE has shown greater resilience when compared to other sectors, although it is still not widespread. To examine how SSE can improve young women’s experiences and labour trajectories, this article analyses working conditions, job satisfaction and gender roles in school-to-work transitions of young women in SSE in Catalonia. Results show that the collective and value-driven nature of SSE entails a specific awareness and commitment that empower young women’s transitions experiences and expectations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 409-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna P Durnová ◽  
Eva M Hejzlarová

In public policy scholarship on policy design, emotions are still treated as opposed to goals, and their presence is assumed to signal that things have gone wrong. We argue, however, that understanding how and for whom emotions matter is vital to the dynamics of policy designs because emotions are central to the capacity building of policy intermediaries and, with that, to the success of public policies. We examine the case of Czech single mothers in their role as intermediaries in ‘alimony policy’. Our interpretive survey provided single mothers an opportunity to express the way they experience the policy emotionally. The analysis reveals that the policy goal of the child’s well-being is produced at the cost of the mother’s emotional tensions and that policy designs defuse these emotional tensions, implicitly. These contradictory emotions expressed by mothers show us a gateway to problematising policy designs in a novel way, which reconsiders construing policy design as a technical, solution-oriented enterprise to one in which emotional tensions intervene in policy design and are essential for succeeding.


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