ESRI Discussion Paper Series No.406 Fathers’ Involvement in Domestic Work and Mothers’ Employment: Evidence from Bunching

Mika Akesaka

Associate Professor, Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University

Nobuyoshi Kikuchi

Visiting Researcher, Economic and Social Research Institute, Cabinet Office
Associate Professor, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Tokyo Metropolitan University

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.