Television improves mothers’ career prospects. That is the main finding of new research by Adrian Nieto Castro, to be presented at the annual congress of the European Economic Association in August 2020.
His study analyses the effect of television on the labour market. He shows that the digital television transition in the UK, which increased the number of channels that could we watched from 5 to 40 and raised television viewing time, increased the employment probabilities of mothers by 2.3% and had no effect on the employment probabilities of fathers and non-parents.
A plausible explanation for these findings is that television keeps children busy, allowing parents to focus on their careers. The study provides evidence consistent with this explanation, by showing that the effect of television on employment is higher for parents who initially have higher family burdens or financial constraints to access childcare.
Furthermore, the research shows that digital television reduces the time that mothers dedicate to housework and the suffering of families when mothers work. These findings show that television may act as a tool towards improving mothers’ professional careers and reducing gender inequalities in the labour market.
Television viewing is one of the most important leisure activities for the majority of individuals, In the UK, people watched an average of 3 hours and 12 minutes per day in 2019.
Given the relevance of television, a number of studies have explored its implications for life outcomes, and commonly associated it with health issues as well as with a reduction in the time parents spend with children. Changes in time allocation and adverse health outcomes can have implications for labour supply, and so it is important to explore the effect of television on the labour market.
Which are the main implications of television for the labour market? Despite the importance of television in the everyday life of most of people, this question has been largely unexplored.
The analysis of the digital television transition in the UK, which was one of the most important revolutions in the British television market that increased the number of channels that could we watched from 5 to 40 and television viewing time, shows that television increases the employment probabilities of mothers by 2.3% but has no effect on the employment probabilities of fathers and non-parents (see Figure 1 and 2).
A possible explanation for television only increasing employment for mothers is that television keeps children busy, allowing parents to focus on their careers. The study provides evidence supporting this explanation, as it shows that the effect of television on employment is higher for parents who initially have higher family burdens or financial constraints to access childcare (see Figure 3). On top of this, the analysis shows that television reduces the time that mothers dedicate to housework and the suffering of families when mothers work (see Figure 4).
The study is the first in providing causal evidence on the contemporaneous effect of television on labour supply. The findings show that television may be a useful tool for policy-makers in order to improve mothers’ careers and reduce gender inequality in the labour market.
Figure 1. Effect of the Digital Transition on Employment
Figure 2. Effect of Television by Parental Status and Gender
Figure 3. Further Heterogeneity
Figure 4. Housework
Contact details:
Author: Adrian Nieto Castro
Position: Post-doctoral researcher, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
Personal website: https://sites.google.com/view/adriannieto/research
E-mail: adrian.nietocastro@liser.lu
Twitter: @adriannietocas