Caution! Men not at work: Gender-specific labor market conditions and child maltreatment

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lindo, Jason M.; Schaller, Jessamyn; Hansen, Benjamin
• 署名单位: Texas A&M University System; Texas A&M University College Station; National Bureau of Economic Research; IZA Institute Labor Economics; University of Arizona; University of Oregon
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.04.007
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 77-98
• 关键词: Child maltreatment; ABUSE; neglect; unemployment; job loss; time use

摘要

This paper examines the effect of labor market conditions measured through unemployment, mass layoffs and predicted employment on child maltreatment using county-level data from California. Using these indicators, we separately estimate the effects of overall and gender-specific economic shocks. We find only modest evidence of a link between overall economic conditions and child maltreatment. However, analysis by gender reveals robust evidence that maltreatment decreases with indicators for male employment and increases with indicators for female employment. These opposite-signed effects are consistent with a theoretical framework that builds on household-time-use models and is supported by an analysis of time-use data, though we discuss other mechanisms that may also play important roles. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.