Do parents drink their children’s welfare? Intra-household allocation of time between market labour, domestic work and child care in Russia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether parental alcohol consumption leads to a reduction of child welfare. To this end, we analyse whether alcohol consumption decreases parents' time spent looking after children and working. Using the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, we estimate a model of intra-household allocation of time for mono-nuclear families with children under fifteen years of age. We find that fathers' alcohol consumption has a negative impact on their weekly hours spent doing child care, while no significant effect is observed for mothers' alcohol consumption.

Family structure and children’s educational attainment in transition economies

“…In the following years, this upward trend was interrupted by an increase in the price of alcohol, until 1998 when it started to rise again (RLMS data suggest a 27% increase in alcohol consumption during the whole period from 1992 to 2000). Subsequent RLMS data (2006−2010) partially confirm the previous trends, with total daily alcohol intake showing a slight increase for men and an essentially stable path for women [9].…”

“…Parental alcohol consumption reduces parental time devoted to childcare [9]. Mother's alcohol consumption has a negative impact on educational attainment [7].…”

“…The effect of poor parental health on children's human capital has also been studied for Russia, which experienced severe, pervasive health problems during transition, particularly for men of prime working age (those aged aged 25−54) [7], [9]. The majority of these health problems were driven by an increase in alcohol consumption.…”

“…Primary education received the most attention from government during the transition; however, the average quality of primary school education was poor during this period and unequal in terms of learning achievements, between urban and rural areas as well Lucia Mangiavacchi | Family structure and children's educational attainment in transition economies as different socio-economic backgrounds [3], [9]. Education policies have only weakly focused on educational outcomes; they have largely kept antiquated curricula and low standards of pedagogy.…”

“…Several studies show that different household-level shocks further hampered children's educational success, forced children to drop out of school [3], [5], [6], [7], or increased their probability of suffering from depression or other health problems [8]. Transition shocks also reduce the presence of parents in the household and the time they are able to devote to their children [9].…”