Total Work and Gender: Facts and Possible Explanations
Abstract
Time-diary data from 27 countries show a negative relationship between real GDP per capita and female-male differences in total work time—work for pay and work at home. In rich non-Catholic countries on four continents men and women do about the same average amount of total work. Survey results demonstrate, however, that labor economists, macroeconomists, sociologists and the general public believe that women work more. The widespread average equality does not arise from gender differences in the price of time, from intra-family bargaining or from spousal complementarity. Several theories, including ones based on social norms, might explain these findings and are consistent with cross-national evidence from the World Values Surveys and sets of microeconomic data from Australia and Germany.Download Info
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Paper provided by Sonderforschungsbereich 649, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany in its series SFB 649 Discussion Papers with number SFB649DP2012-007.Length: 37 pages
Date of creation: Feb 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hum:wpaper:sfb649dp2012-007
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Related research
Keywords: time use; gender differences; household production; paid work;Other versions of this item:
- Michael Burda & Daniel Hamermesh & Philippe Weil, 2013. "Total work and gender: facts and possible explanations," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 239-261, January.
- Michael Burda & Hamermesh Daniel & Weil Philippe, 2012. "Total work and gender facts and possible explanations," Documents de Travail de l'OFCE 2012-03, Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques (OFCE).
- J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
- J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
- D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2012-03-08 (All new papers)
- NEP-DEM-2012-03-08 (Demographic Economics)
- NEP-HME-2012-03-08 (Heterodox Microeconomics)
- NEP-LAB-2012-03-08 (Labour Economics)
- NEP-LMA-2012-03-08 (Labor Markets - Supply, Demand, & Wages)
- NEP-LTV-2012-03-08 (Unemployment, Inequality & Poverty)
References
References listed on IDEASPlease report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
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