Prof Christine Ho

Feature on Christine Ho, Associate Professor of Economics
School of Economics, Singapore Management University 

Exploring family dynamics and designing policies

From female empowerment to declining birth rates, family dynamics are adjusting to economic and demographic changes – and policymakers need to keep up. Through her research, Christine Ho, Associate Professor of Economics at the SMU, looks at the shifts affecting global family units and the policies that can improve welfare on these issues.

Fertility rates have declined by around 50 per cent over the last 70 years. In 1952, an average family would have five children; nowadays, they have fewer than three. Some of the causes attributed to this decrease include women’s economic empowerment through higher education and workforce participation, and the increased cost of raising children.  

“It’s a common global trend – with economic development, we tend to see increasing female participation in the labour force, coupled with declining birth rates,” says Christine Ho, Associate Professor of Economics at Singapore Management University (SMU). “As the main burden of caring for children typically falls on women, there are important trade-offs between female employment and child care.”  

Ho sees the issue as an important question within the realm of family economics and public policy. She explains that there is currently a lot of room for husbands and policymakers to step in and provide help to ease this problem of double shifts for women. “Women have to work full-time, and when they get home, they also have to clean, cook, and look after the kids – this is a burden that affects half of the world’s population,” she adds.  

One tool that many policymakers around the world are leveraging to address the issue is through childcare subsidies. “It is now increasingly common for working parents to put their children in daycare – so it is important to ensure that day care is accessible, affordable, and of good quality.”  

Ho elaborates that it is not just about freeing up time for women to work. It is essential that during these important formative years, children are able to develop cognitive and social skills that prepare them for school. “Accessible and affordable daycare needs to be of good quality to ensure that children are not missing out either,” she adds.   

In one of her research papers, Ho looks at how governments can design efficient childcare subsidies for their population. “The main takeaway was that it would be beneficial for families and society if governments were to subsidise formal daycare for low income working mothers. A qualitatively efficient way to do this would be through ‘sliding scale childcare subsidies’, which means that the subsidy rates decline with income. Lower income mothers would receive higher subsidy rates compared to higher income mothers.”  

The family as an economic unit  

Ho’s work lies in the intersection between family economics and public policy. “It is an interesting area because economics is about decision-making. As human beings that live in a society, we do not make decisions in a vacuum. You would typically take into consideration how your choices affect the people around you – the closest of which would be your family such as parents, children, and so on.”  

For Ho, one of her main research interests is family support and exchanges between different family members and generations. In a recent paper, she highlights how parents often intend to leave larger bequest shares to coresident children and to children who provide greater financial support. It was also found that parents intend to bequeath more to children in whom they confide frequently, whereas those they rarely confide in receive more bequests only if they provide greater financial support. 

The study uses data from the June 2018 Singapore Life Panel and focuses on a sample of 4,125 adult children and their middle-aged and older parents. “The results suggest that parents may interpret physical and emotional proximity to children as signs of filial piety for which they may reward them. Meanwhile, detached children may earn such rewards through financial support,” says Ho.  

She adds that the research demonstrates the existence of coresidence-for-bequest and money-for-bequest exchanges between adult children and their parents. In the future, the arrangements may translate into caregiving-for-bequest dynamics when parents become elderly. “These have broader implications for both individual and societal well-being, given that many countries are facing a rapidly ageing population now.”  

Changing family, changing norms   

The family unit forms the basis of society, which also means that the notion of family would evolve with the times and norms. Besides demographic shifts – such as declining birth rates and ageing populations – and women’s economic empowerment, changing social values also impact how families are organised within society. In recent years, there has been greater acceptance of family structures that deviate from the traditional nuclear family unit comprising a heterosexual married couple and their biological offspring. 

Ho explains that these new trends, be it single parenthood, cohabitation, or same-sex unions, tend to be intricately intertwined with social norms. For example, in Asian countries like Singapore or South Korea where fertility rates are low, it's rare for people to have children out of wedlock. Whereas in western countries like the United States (US) or Scandinavian countries, where fertility rates are higher, it's relatively common for people to have kids without getting married. 

“We can see interesting comparisons between Singapore and the US in this aspect. In Singapore, you need to be either married or single and above 35 years old to purchase subsidised public housing. Single mothers are also ineligible for the full baby bonus scheme from the government. This is in contrast to the US, where single mothers tend to receive more generous benefits compared to married parents,” says Ho, adding, “This could be an interesting avenue for research, because given that people are more accepting of single parenthood today, perhaps the government could look into revising the programmes to give them more support.”  

However, she emphasises that it would all depend on how accepting a society is of alternative family units. “Oftentimes, single parenthood is associated with worse outcomes for children. Nevertheless, regardless of individual values, we need to be mindful that some of these single parents could be facing very painful circumstances. For example, some may have suffered from domestic violence and left their partner as a result.”  

She explains that this is part of what she hopes her research can shed light on and bring a positive impact to. “Society is made up of diverse groups of people, and we need to be careful not to generalise or stigmatise individuals that may not be aligned with current societal norms. Through my work, I hope to encourage people to rethink and constantly question how family-related policies can be further fine-tuned, so that we can make society a more welcoming, compassionate space for everyone,” Ho concludes.