The Rug Rat Race
Abstract
After three decades of decline, the amount of time spent by parents on childcare in the United States began to rise dramatically in the mid-1990s. This increase was particularly pronounced among college-educated parents. Less educated mothers increased their childcare time by over 4 hours per week, and college-educated mothers increased theirs by over 9 hours per week. Fathers showed the same patterns, but with smaller magnitudes. Why would highly educated parents increase the time they allocate to childcare at the same time that their returns from paid employment have skyrocketed? Finding no empirical support for standard explanations, such as selection or income effects, we argue instead that increased competition for college admissions may be an important factor. We provide empirical support for our explanation with a comparison of trends between the United States and Canada, across ethnic groups in the United States, and across U.S. states.
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Ramey and Ramey (2010) document that more educated parents in the United States have increased the time spent on child care much more than less educated parents.
“Ramey and Ramey (2010) document, for example, that more educated parents in the United States have increased the time spent on child care much more than less educated parents”
From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Ramey and Ramey (2010)
Ramey and Ramey (2010) cite competition for college admission as one reason for the widening disparity in parenting investments observed in the United States.
“Ramey and Ramey (2010) cite competition for college admission as one reason for the widening disparity in parenting investments observed in the United States.”
From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Ramey and Ramey (2010)
More educated mothers not only spend more time on childcare overall, but also tailor this time more closely to their children's developmental needs, and the overall gap in childcare time between more- and less-educated parents is especially large for education-oriented activities.
“Such a channel is supported by evidence that more educated mothers not only spend more time on childcare overall, but also tailor this time more closely to their children's developmental needs (Kalil, Ryan, and Corey 2012), and that the overall gap in childcare time between more-and less-educated parents is especially large for education-oriented activities (Ramey and Ramey 2010;Kalil et al. 2016;”
From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Ramey and Ramey 2010
Parental inputs of money and time have become more unequal across the income scale in different countries.
“There is, indeed, clear evidence that parental inputs of money and time have become more unequal across the income scale in different countries (Ramey and Ramey 2010;Kornrich and Furstenberg 2012;Corak 2013;Schneider, Hastings, and LaBriola 2018;Doepke and Zilibotti 2019).”
From Educational Inequality* (2022) · cites this paper as Ramey and Ramey 2010
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Blanden, J., Doepke, M., & Stuhler, J. (2022) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w29979 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
- Authors
- Ramey, G., & Ramey, V. A.
- ORCID
- Ramey, Valerie A.
- Venue
- Brookings Papers on Economic Activity
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2010-03
- Volume
- 2010
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 129-176
- ISSN
- 0007-2303 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-4465
- OpenAlex
- W4229649621
- Cited by
- 188
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 12.40
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Work-Family Balance Challenges
- Keywords
- parental education, parental employment, selection effects, income effects, mothers, fathers, ethnic differences, cross-national comparison, United States and Canada, state-level variation
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