Using detailed time-use data for seven industrialized countries from the 1970s until today we document general decreases in men's market work coupled with increases in men's unpaid work and child care, and increases in women's paid work and child care coupled with decreases in unpaid work. We...

This paper uses propensity score matching methods to investigate the relationship between breastfeeding and children's cognitive and noncognitive development. We find that breastfeeding for four weeks is positively and statistically significantly associated with higher cognitive test scores, by...

This paper complements conventional economic analysis and presents a social norms interpretation to explain cross-country differences in partnership formation rates, and the dramatic decrease in partnership formation rates in Southern Europe in particular. We argue that increases in female human...

The Congressional Budget Office Long-Term (CBOLT) model uses dynamic micro-simulation to analyze Social Security policy. The version of CBOLT currently being used to analyze policy for the Congress incorporates micro behavioral effects insofar as agents alter their timing of initial claiming of...

Contrary to the predictions of Economic Theory, Southern Europe's rapid fertility decline has resulted in a positive cross-country correlation between female labor force participation and fertility. We develop a model with heterogeneity in attitudes towards women's home time and a social...

Economic theories of the household and the marriage market provide potential explanations for differences in household formation rates over time based in part on the evolution of female wages. However, cross-country differences in female market human capital are unlikely to account for the...

We use novel diary surveys coupled with universities' administrative student data for the last three decades to document that increased competition for university places at elite institutions in the United Kingdom contributes to explain growing gaps in time investments between college and...

This paper complements conventional economic analysis and presents a social norms interpretation to explain cross-country differences in partnership formation rates, and the dramatic decrease in partnership formation rates in Southern Europe in particular. We argue that increases in female human...

This dissertation consists of three self-contained chapters on universal early childhood education. They complement each other by investigating three different perspectives of a large-scale investment in the rollout of universal daycare in Denmark during the late 1960s and 70s. Prior to 1964,...

This paper examines the effects of universal daycare on mothers' labor force participation, full-time employment, and earnings over their working lifetime. I exploit differential access to daycare caused by a roll-out of daycare centers across Denmark in combination with rich administrative...