Women's economic opportunities and the intra-household production of child human capital

This paper exploits variation in the relative demand for male and female labour during the Great Recession to estimate the effect of women's relative economic opportunities on the resources parents allocate to children. Estimates from the American Time Use Survey suggest that a 5 percentage point increase in the female-to-male wage ratio raises parents' time with children by one hour per week. Child test scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary test are estimated to increase by 8 per cent of a standard deviation in response to such ath the wage ratio and thn increase. Further analysis of our results suggests that an associated increase in female bargaining power is necessary to explain our empirical findings.