Kucel, AleksanderVilalta-Bufí, Montserrat2024-04-152024-04-152023Kucel A, Vilalta-Bufí M. Overeducation and childcare time. International Journal of Manpower. 2023 Dec 18;44(9):108-27. DOI: 10.1108/IJM-01-2023-00400143-7720http://hdl.handle.net/10230/59775Purpose. Research shows that parental employment and education status affect the amount of parental childcare time, which is a fundamental determinant of children's outcomes. In this paper, the authors study whether being overeducated – working in a job that requires less education than the level of education acquired – is related to the time parents devote to their children. Design/methodology/approach. The authors set two main hypotheses. First, overeducation might lead to more childcare time if being overeducated is the result of the individual prioritizing family over career. Second, overeducation might lead to less childcare time if overeducation is the result of lower ability. The authors estimate time use equations using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) from 2004 to 2019. Findings. The authors find that overeducated parents devote less time to childcare than matched parents, especially in the weekend sample. The authors’ results suggest that overeducation is not a deliberate choice prioritizing family over career. Originality/value. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study on the implications of being overeducated on childcare.application/pdfengCopyright © 2023, Aleksander Kucel and Montserrat Vilalta-Bufí. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcodeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJM-01-2023-0040Parental timeChildcare timeOvereducationEducation-job mismatchATUSinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess