Publication Date

1-1-2012

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Wilcox-Gök, Virginia Louise

Legacy Department

Department of Economics

Abstract

How do increasing levels of education affect parents’ decisions to stay home with their children? When children are born parents make the decision to stay home and raise them or to continue at their jobs in the labor force. Parents need to be informed to make the best choice for their family. The choice to stay home with the children or work in the labor market is based on the perceived value a family puts on a parent staying home. Some of the duties of a typical stay-home parent include cooking, cleaning, laundering, childcare, and driving. Using three levels of education including high school, college, and professional school graduates an income will be established that parents may use to determine whether or not they should stay home. Opportunity cost, market equivalents of services, and reservation wage will all be used to determine at what level parents will stay home. Financially, if a parent makes more than the average salary of someone performing the average household tasks, they should choose to enter the labor force once again. Otherwise it is beneficial to stay home and raise the child and forgo the potential market wage.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

12 unnumbered pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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