2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Investment in Children's Education and Maternal Employment ; Japan U.S.Comparison
| Project/Area Number |
14510219
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
社会学(含社会福祉関係)
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| Research Institution | Sophia University |
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Principal Investigator |
HIRAO Keiiko Sophia University, Faculty of Arts and Letters, Associate Professor, 文学部, 助教授 (70158335)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2004
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| Keywords | Extra-school Programs / Maternal Employment / Educational Expenses / Class Difference in Educational Opportunities / Educational Aspirations / Family Strategy for Children's Education / Japan-U.S Comparison |
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| Research Abstract |
The traditional neoclassical economic theories identified parents' time and money as the major input for raising children, and the allotment of the time and money invested is basically determined by the parents' opportunity cost. This argument leads us to expect that, when private return is held constant, the family demand for children's education raises the family need for financial resources and thus will give incentives for mothers to work for pay. In order to test this hypothesis, this study explored household expenditure patterns on children's education and its relations to mothers' labor supply in Japan and United States, the two societies in which a large portion of human capital accumulation is privatized.
The major findings; of the study are twofold: Fist, in both countries, children's educational attainment has become increasingly dependent upon parents' willingness and availability of resources, with widening discrepancies observed among regions and socioeconomic status of pa
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rents. Second, attendance at extra-school programs and female (maternal) labor supply were inversely related both in prefecture-level data and in micro-level data in Japan, while such relation was not found in the United States.
These differences are probably attributed to the structural differences of the educational system in both countries. First difference is the relations between the Central (Federal) government and Local (State) government as to how public education is managed. In the United States, managements of public schools, including financing, personnel, and curriculum contents are within the discretion of the school district. The real-estate price of a school district reflects the academic standings of the public school As such, parents' investment in children's education is confounded with their decisions on housing location. Second, privatized educational industry in Japan has developed itself as an integral part of the Japanese education system, while in the United States, such services are only available in limited areas and for limited groups of parents.
The analyses on spatial distribution of extra-school education services in Nagoya City revealed that there is a wide school district-level difference of learning environment of children, and that this gap is closely tied to the socioeconomic difference of the residents. As for the intersection between formal schools and private extra-school education services, they function separately under the auspices of different Ministries in Japan. In the United States, however; there are some cases where private education services are actively incorporated in the formal school curriculums, partly functioning as apart of after-school programs to facilitate childcare problems for working parents. Less
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Research Products
(14 results)
