RESEARCH

Working papers

“Time and Money spent on Children: Effect of the (Grand)Parents’ Education and Substitution within Time Allocations” (2022)

Working Paper ECARES 2022-04

This paper looks at the link between education of both partners and the time and money they spend on their children. Taking advantage of detailed microdata for Belgium in 2016, it goes one step further than most previous studies as we control for the time constraint faced by the individuals, as well as interdependencies in the time spent in various activities by partners. This is done by performing Seemingly Unrelated Regressions. We see that, while the division of time between men and women is still gendered, it gets more egalitarian when the individuals have a high level of education. Concerning the investments in children, we find that children with parents with a low level of education suffer from less investments from their parents both in terms of time and money. Overall, our results seem to back up the gender ideology theory with education driving the transition from conservative to more egalitarian gender ideology and to be transmitted across generations with grandparents serving as gendered role models for the parents.

Publications

“A Bigger House at the Cost of an Empty Stomach? The Effect of Households' Indebtedness on Their Consumption: Micro-Evidence Using Belgian HFCS Data” (2022), with P. Du Caju, F. Rycx, and I. Tojerow 

Review of Economics of the Household

This paper investigates the potentially non-linear relation between households' indebtedness and their consumption. To do so, we use panel data from the two waves of the Belgian Household Finance and Consumption Survey. Unlike previous studies, we find a negative effect of households' indebtedness on their consumption, even in the absence of any negative shock on their assets. Our findings suggest that, without such a shock, it is the day-to-day sustainability of the debt, rather than its overall sustainability, that leads households to reduce their consumption. The effect thus seems to occur through precautionary motives. To explore potential non-linearities in this effect, we perform a threshold analysis, whose results suggest that households should not have a debt-service-to-income ratio greater than 30% as this leads to a substantial reduction in their consumption. The effect appears to be robust to various specifications, including the inclusion of other European countries, to result from a trade-off between housing and consumption, and to be more prevalent among fragile households.

“Time use and life satisfaction within couples: A gender analysis for Belgium” (2023), with B. De Rock

Feminist Economics

This study looks at the time allocations of individuals with a focus on paid and unpaid work, its division within the households, as well as its link with life satisfaction. Analyzing the case of Belgium in 2016 using the MEqIn database, the division of time appears to be quite gendered. Looking at the link with life satisfaction, women are found to be more satisfied when working part-time. This could be due to the fact that most working women still undertake most of the unpaid work so that they end up operating a double shift. Looking at the link of time allocations of both partners on the individuals' life satisfaction, it appears that men's behavior is accordance with the conservative gender ideology, and more precisely to its bread-winner version, while women's behavior is closer to an egalitarian vision of the division of work. We further observe that those behaviors are softened by the presence of children.

Books

“Well-being in Belgium: Beyond Happiness and Income” (2020), with B. Capéau, L. Cherchye, K. Decancq, A. Decoster, B. De Rock, F. Maniquet, A. Nys, E. Ramaekers, Z. Rongé, E. Schokkaert and F. Vermeulen. Springer, Series in Economic Studies in Inequality, Social Exclusion and Well-Being, Heidelberg 

More information here: https://sites.google.com/view/meqin/book

Also published in:

• French: “En faut-il peu pour être heureux ? Conditions de vie, bonheur et bien-être en Belgique” (2019), Anthemis, Limal

• Dutch: “Wat heet dan gelukkig zijn? Geluk, welvaart en welzijn van de Belgen” (2018), Garant, Antwerp

Book Chapters

“Household's Indebtedness” in Encyclopedia of Consumption Edited by José M. Labeaga and José Alberto Molina. Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2024-2025

Other

“Sustainable Governance indicator 2022: Belgium Report” (2022), with M. Castanheira, B. Rihoux, and N. Bandelow, Bertelsmann Stiftung

More information here: https://www.sgi-network.org/docs/2022/country/SGI2022_Belgium.pdf 

“Sustainable Governance in the Context of the COVID-19 Crisis” (2021), with M. Castanheira, B. Rihoux, and N. Bandelow, Bertelsmann Stiftung

More information here: https://www.sgi-network.org/docs/2021/country/SGI2021_Belgium.pdf