Maternal Household Services and Children

Abstract

Abstract Forensic economists in wrongful death cases are often asked to calculate the present value of household services a decedent otherwise would have provided. In this paper, we calculate the amount of time mothers allocate to provide household services on average by the age of the youngest child and by the number of children using 2003-2013 American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data. We separately examine household production and time caring and helping others. Our results show that mothers with younger children and more children generally allocate more time for household services. However, while maternal caring and helping time decreases with the age of the youngest child, maternal household production increases with the age of the youngest child. In contrast to other published sources, the information we provide will allow economists to adjust for the number of children, and to better adjust for the age of the youngest household child, when calculating the present value of lost household production in wrongful death cases involving deceased mothers.