Child Care and Work Leave--Posner's Response to Comments

One commenter suggests that low fertility is due to the reluctance of a couple to give up the second income (normally the wife's) if the couple has a child and as a result one of the parents (normally the mother) leaves the labor force. This has always been true; but in the old days, women's job opportunities were limited, so that the income they had to give up when they dropped out of the labor force in order to have children was usually quite small. This is another way of saying that the opportunity costs (alternative income forgone) of having a child have risen for women, so, naturally, the "output" of children has fallen. Now, this would not necessarily happen if, at the same time that children were becoming more costly, they were becoming more valuable to their parents; that is, if the demand curve for children as well as the supply curve were shifting upward. But, especially with the prohibition of child labor, this has not happened. Rather, as Becker has emphasized, there has been a shift in demand from quantity to quality of children. This makes sense if the cost of the extra quality in better schooling, etc., is less than would be the cost of an extra quantity of children--in other words, if the total costs (including opportunity costs) of one high-quality child are now lower than the total costs of two or more lower-quality children. It may also be the case that, if one thinks of children as being from the parents' perspective a consumption good (like a pet), what has happened is that the market for goods and services is producing better substitutes, at a lower quality-adjusted cost, than in the past, so that the cost of giving up these alternatives in order to invest in children has risen. A Canadian commenter states that the quality of public day care is, in Canada, higher than that of private day care. If so, however, one wonders what demand there is for private day care--is it that access to public day care is limited and that public day care is of higher quality than private because of high taxation?

Comments

[coach bags]

Good at planning, good at time management.*

[Christian Louboutin Shoes]

ldren as being from the parents' perspective a consumption good (like a pet), what has happened is that the market for goods and services is producing better substitutes, at a lower quality-adjusted cost, than in the past, so that the cost of giving up these alternatives in order to invest in children has risen. A Canadian commenter states that the quality of public day care is, in Canada, higher than that

[nike sko]

Mens de fleste sneaker mærker skabe et navn for sig selv på NBA domstole, Concept 1 fra Athletic Drivkraft Labs fik sin berygtet for ikke at gøre det til NBA domstole overhovedet.

[sko online]

Hvid er den farve valg på branding igennem, og ses også komme sammen med gummi på sålen below.An officielle udgivelse er endnu ikke annonceret for debut colorway af SB Koston One, men vi skal forvente dem snart ved at vælge Nike SB Forhandlere.

[Nike free run]

Den hvide-baserede sko får hjælp fra sort på tungen, ankler og indvendig foring. Orion blå og infrarød hold op til flere farver ordninger på tungen, hæl og ydersål.

[nike shox sko]

fortsætter sin opstigning til skate storhed, er Nike Zoom Stefan Janoski dukke op på SB steder i en smuk sport rødt ruskind colorway som helt sikkert vil have en tilstedeværelse i skate parker i de kommende måneder.

[billige nike sko]

Some of the Nike Basketball team is making the playoff switch from the Hyperfuse to the Hyperfuse 2011, but theres still a little life left in the former.

[sko online]

Endelig er de polyurethan footbeds prydet med en sort og hvid collage af Deion pro fodbold career.

[Nike shox]

This nye colorway af Kobe VI er i øjeblikket Tegner i en oktober release.Color: Imperial Purple / Del SolStyle: 429659-501

[nike sko]

Arbejde med en sømløs konstruktion, denne nyeste udgivelse stadig tro mod den klassiske Air Force 1 silhuet.