ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the economic framework of households. This framework is used in deriving the economic model of this study. The chapter presents the survey data used in the article. It explains the results of the multiple classification analysis (MCA) and the empirical estimates of the model. Two methods are employed in analyzing the influence of child care availability on the employment of urban Nigerian women: the MCA and ordinary least square regression. According to the modern economic theory of the family, the household unit is viewed as making collective decisions that determine the behavior of each member. The economic model then assumes that the objective of each household is to maximize utility, subject to the income constraints of the household and the prices of the inputs purchased. This model yields a system of reduced-form equations for endogenous variables as functions of individual, household, market, and community constraints that set prices for goods and services that households produce and consume.
