September 1, 2016

‘Mothers, Maids and Tutors: An Empirical Evaluation of their Effect on Children’s Academic Grades in Singapore,’ published in Education Economics (2005), is authored by Dr Euston Quah, former FASS faculty member, and Dr Roland Cheo, teaching faculty at the Department of Economics.

In this paper, the authors explain how the basic economic unit—the home—has become wealthier as female labour force participation in the workforce increases in Singapore, although arguably at the expense of both personal and family leisure. They go on to examine the effects of this on a child’s overall academic performance, primarily, the effects of a mother’s choice to work, the presence of either tutors or domestic helpers and the effects of different investment strategies to raise a child’s qualitative attributes. The paper asserts that how a child performs academically is less dependent on their choice of time use; rather, it is the number of qualitative benefits the child receives in the home environment.

You can read the full article here.