Collective labor supply and child care expenditures: theory and application

In this study we examine the collective labor supply choices of dual-earner parents and take into account child care expenditures. We find that the individual labor supplies are hardly affected by changes in the prices of child care services. In addition, the child care price effects on the individual labor supplies are much smaller than the wage effects. Furthermore, we find that the additional earnings due to an increase in household non-labor income minus the child care expenditures are mainly transferred to the female partner