Self-employment and family time use: Parent’s decisions on children’s development

This paper studies the interactions among parental occupational choice and time allocations of their children in a developing economy. Data from the Mexican Time Use Survey 2002 indicates that informal self-employed parents demand a substantial amount of work hours from their children while minimizing their study hours. Self-employment produces gender specific patterns: Sons’ work outside the household is the most demanded by substituting away study time and housework. Conversely, daughters’ housework and work outside increases moderately and study time decreases also significantly. The data also suggests that self-employment is associated with less educational spending and less schooling relative to children’s age. This tradeoff implies a large obstacle in children development. Parent’s self-employment induces their children into low human capital occupations, thus, making poverty a persistent state across generations.