Welfare Analysis of Childcare and Transport Policies for Married Couples: A Microeconomic Study

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13673
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 07040:Economic policy-related
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Lo Ashley Wan-Tzu 東北大学, 情報科学研究科, 特任助教 (70835701)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: Gender difference / Household welfare / Time allocation / Value of time / Life stage / Childcare

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research investigates the societal gender differences in terms of time values by life stage and the effects of transport and childcare policies on welfare for households with a married couple and at least one child in Japan. Based on our intertemporal household model, we empirically show that wives are still primarily responsible for childcare and burdened by limited time available when their first child is of pre-school age, while their husbands’ time uses are less affected by childcare tasks. Moreover, some dual-income families may not reconcile work-family lives since their long, exhausting workdays do not allow them to allocate more than the required time to childcare. The simulations show that (1) urban strategies that facilitate travel time reduction and support childcare-chauffeur service can enhance household welfare somewhat, (2) the work-from-home option could be more effective in improving household welfare through alleviating the time and spatial constraints.

Free Research Field

Gender difference

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

This research elucidates the societal gender disparity in married couple’s time use. Our rigid, advanced framework directly measures and compares the within-household gender differences in time use burden and can be readily applied to the contexts of other countries and policy assessment.