Patterns of Education Level on Childcare: The case of France & US

Sammanfattning: Using Multinational Time Use Study data from France and US, the effect of parental educational level on time spent with children is analyzed. Regressions in which the depent variables are the minutes used in total childcare, household work, leisure, basic childcare, educational childcare and recreational childcare are estimated. The pattern of total childcare is compared to household work and leisure in order to see if they follow the same path. The results indicate that total childcare should be distinguished from household production, due to different degree of substitutability. Furthermore, there seems to be a welfare state difference in how parents allocate time to childcare activities, especially educational childcare. But this study must be considered to be exploratory when welfare state differences are concerned.