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Do women face a glass ceiling at home? The division of household labor among dual-earner couples

Author

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  • Tomáš Lichard

    (Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education—Economics Institute (CERGE-EI), a joint workplace of Charles University in Prague and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences
    Prague University of Economics and Business)

  • Filip Pertold

    (Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education—Economics Institute (CERGE-EI), a joint workplace of Charles University in Prague and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

  • Samuel Škoda

    (Department of Economics, University of Zurich)

Abstract

In this paper, we use data on mixed-gender dual-earner couples in Southern and Western Europe to investigate how the division of unpaid household labor within mixed-gender couples varies depending on the ratio of the partners’ market wages. From analysis of the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, we first show that married or cohabiting women do twice as much household work as single women with the same income. Furthermore, women’s time spent in home production does not vary in relation to the couple’s relative wages in Southern Europe. We find a positive elasticity of substitution between male and female labor in home production with respect to their relative within-couple wages in Western Europe. Our identification is based on predicting each country’s wage distributions within gender-specific cells defined by age group and education using distributions in all the other countries. We present a positive evidence for presence of a “second-shift” that women face especially in Southern Europe, which may stem from regional gender norms.

Suggested Citation

  • Tomáš Lichard & Filip Pertold & Samuel Škoda, 2021. "Do women face a glass ceiling at home? The division of household labor among dual-earner couples," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1209-1243, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:reveho:v:19:y:2021:i:4:d:10.1007_s11150-021-09558-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11150-021-09558-7
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household production; Division of labor; Gender gap; Elasticity of substitution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation

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