Egerton M () (Department of Sociology, University of Oxford) Mullan K () (Australian National University)
Abstract
This paper is set in the context of macrosocial/macroeconomic theories of the organization of both paid and unpaid work. The specific topic investigated is engagement in unpaid voluntary work, an activity which is thought to be important for social cohesion. Research on the sources of social cohesion has focussed on organisational membership and voluntary organisation activity. There has been little investigation of informal helping of non-resident kin, friends or acquaintances, an activity which is not measured in most social surveys but is available from time use surveys. Previous research shows that the highly educated are more likely to engage in formal voluntary organisations and data from the UK 2000 HETUS survey confirm that the highly educated spend more time on formally organised voluntary work. However, the less qualified, particularly women, spend more time on extra-household unpaid helping activities. Since voluntary work is partly dependent on available time, these findings are modelled adjusting for time allocated to paid work, study, family and personal care. The findings remain statistically significant and it is hypothesised that social networks may play an important role in mobilising both formal and informal helping. Drawing on work carried out by the Office for National Statistics, a monetary value is placed on the both types of unpaid helping work. Although the average wage rates for voluntary work are greater than those for informal helping, the latter is greater in frequency and duration and therefore more economically valuable from a population perspective.
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Paper provided by Institute for Social and Economic Research in its series ISER working papers with number
2006-22.
Length: 27 Date of creation: 19 May 2006 Date of revision: Publication status: published Handle: RePEc:ese:iserwp:2006-22
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