RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2026-15

Title

Fathers' Involvement in Domestic Work and Mothers' Employment: Evidence from Bunching

Abstract

We study how husbands' weekday domestic work affects wives' labor supply among couples with children aged 9 or younger. To address endogenous selection, we use a control function approach that exploits bunching at zero in husbands' weekday domestic work hours. Using Japanese panel data, we find that the positive association between husbands' domestic work and wives' labor supply disappears after correcting for selection on unobservables. This suggests that the association is largely driven by selection. At the same time, husbands' domestic work increases wives' weekday domestic work, suggesting complementarities in couples' domestic work time.

Keywords

Labor supply; Domestic work; Childcare; Time use; Control function

JEL Classification

J22, J13, J16, D13

Inquiries

Mika AKESAKA
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration (RIEB)
Kobe University
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036
FAX: +81-78-803-7059

Nobuyoshi KIKUCHI
Faculty of Economics and Business Administration
Tokyo Metropolitan University