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This dissertation consists of three essays studying the effects of collective household decisions on early childhood development from both empirical and theoretical perspectives. The first chapter outlines the dissertation, by presenting the motivations, methods, conclusions, and policy implications for the entire dissertation. Chapter two examines early childhood development using a collective model with children's cognitive production. We jointly estimate the home input demand with children's cognitive production functions based on a simultaneous equations model. Biases are considered that are caused by the non-random selection of time inputs and possible correlations across inputs and outcomes functions. A direct measure of time inputs relying on children's time diaries from the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID-CDS) has been constructed. We thereby relax the assumption that there is no difference between parental time spent on children and leisure. Our results show that parental time inputs, especially the active time interacting with children's daily activities, have substantial effects on both children's math and reading test scores. The time inputs vary across parents' age, race, and eduction levels. In chapter three, we conduct a standard Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to evaluate the role of home inputs in the black-white test score gaps based on the empirical model presented in chapter two. Aside from the finding that children's ability accounts for a large proportion of the differences, we find that home inputs can also explain a significant portion of the gap. When the maternal time is equalized at the average levels of white children, the racial differences in children's reading and math test scores can be closed by approximately 30%-50%. The last chapter extends a collective model with household production to the general equilibrium framework. We concentrate on the impacts of a global bargaining power shift within the household on children's cognitive achievement, especially on those who live with single mothers. The model shows that a global bargaining power change in favor of the female may not necessarily be beneficial to the children living with their single mothers. An increase of female's market equilibrium wage rate as a result of reduced labor supply by married women may induce single mothers to work longer hours, spend less time with children, and compensate them with more monetary investment compared with the case when the equilibrium wage rate stays constant. / Ph. D.

Ces dernières décennies, la famille a connu des changements majeurs dans la majorité des pays de l’OCDE. D’une part, le taux de fertilité a baissé ; d’autre part, le nombre de séparation a fortement augmenté. Cette thèse se propose d’étudier les effets de ces changements de la structure familiale sur le capital humain des individus, en l’envisageant comme une nouvelle source d’inégalités. Dans un cadre micro-économique, cette thèse mobilise les outils économétriques pour les appliquer à de larges bases de données. Les trois chapitres de cette thèse présentent des résultats nouveaux sur l’effet de la séparation parentale et de la taille de la famille sur le capital humain de l’individu. Le premier chapitre porte sur l’effet de la séparation parentale en France sur la réussite professionnelle des individus, et montre un effet négatif de la séparation parentale sur le niveau d’étude et la position sociale de l’individu. En s’appuyant sur des données américaines, le second chapitre s’intéresse aux mécanismes expliquant cet effet, et en particulier, sur les changements du temps passé avec les parents. Ainsi, 30% de l’effet de la séparation parentale sur le développement socio-émotionnel des enfants serait expliqué par la baisse du temps passé avec au moins un parent présent. Le troisième chapitre considère un autre aspect de la structure familiale : la taille de la famille. Nous trouvons que l’arrivée d’un troisième enfant dans la famille diminue les compétences socio-émotionnelles des autres enfants, en particulier chez les filles. / Family has known great transformations in the last decades in a large number of OECD countries. On one hand, fertility rates have decreased. On the other hand, the number of separations has increased sharply. This thesis asks whether these major changes of family structure affect child’s human capital, being a new source of inequalities. Using very large datasets and micro-econometric methods, the three chapters present original empirical evidence on whether parental separation and family size impact individual’s human capital. The first chapter studies the effect of parental separation in France on individual’s achievement, and find a negative effect of parental separation on individual’s educational attainment and social position. Using an American dataset, the second chapter asks whether this effect is driven by changes in time spent with parents, and find that 30% of the effect of parental separation on socio-emotional skills is explained by the decrease in time spent with at least one parent present. The third chapter accounts for another aspect of family structure: the number of children. Using a British dataset, we find that having a second sibling in the United Kingdom decreases the child’s socio-emotional skills, especially for girls.