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On the time allocation of married couples since 1960

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  • Bar, Michael
  • Leukhina, Oksana

Abstract

In the last half a century, married females more than doubled their workforce participation and significantly reduced their time spent on home production. Using a model of family decision making with home production and individual earnings heterogeneity, we subject two prominent explanations for this aggregate change, namely, the evolution of the gender earnings gap and the cost of home appliances, to quantitative tests with respect to changes in participation for disaggregated groups of couples and trends in time spent in leisure and home production activities. We find that both forces are needed to understand the evolution of married female time allocation over time, although the falling cost of home appliances is a dominant explanation for the time allocation outside of workplace, while the gender earnings gap is the dominant explanation for the workforce participation decision.

Suggested Citation

  • Bar, Michael & Leukhina, Oksana, 2011. "On the time allocation of married couples since 1960," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 491-510.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jmacro:v:33:y:2011:i:4:p:491-510
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jmacro.2011.04.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Keller, Elisa, 2019. "Labor supply and gender differences in occupational choice," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 221-241.
    2. Wei-Bin ZHANG, 2014. "Gender Discrimination, Education and Economic Growth in a Generalized Uzawa-Lucas Two-Sector Model," Timisoara Journal of Economics and Business, West University of Timisoara, Romania, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, vol. 7(1), pages 1-34.
    3. Greenwood, Jeremy & Guner, Nezih & Santos, Cezar & Kocharakov, Georgi, 2015. "Technology and the Changing Family: A Unified Model of Marriage, Divorce, Educational Attainment and Married Female Labor-Force," CEPR Discussion Papers 10434, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Amtul Hafeez & Eatzaz Ahmad, 2016. "Analysis of Joint Hours of Work Function of Currently Married Working Couples: A Case Study of Pakistan," Asian Journal of Social Sciences and Management Studies, Asian Online Journal Publishing Group, vol. 3(1), pages 75-81.
    5. Bridgman, Benjamin, 2016. "Home productivity," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 60-76.
    6. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Georgi Kocharkov & Cezar Santos, 2016. "Technology and the Changing Family: A Unified Model of Marriage, Divorce, Educational Attainment, and Married Female Labor-Force Participation," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 8(1), pages 1-41, January.
    7. Michael Bar & Seik Kim & Oksana Leukhina, 2015. "Gender Wage Gap Accounting: The Role of Selection Bias," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(5), pages 1729-1750, October.
    8. Leukhina Oksana & Yu Zhixiu, 2022. "Home Production and Leisure during the COVID-19 Recession," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 22(1), pages 269-306, January.
    9. Lee, Jongkwan & Shim, Myungkyu & Yang, Hee-Seung, 2022. "The rise of low-skill service employment: The role of dual-earner households," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 255-273.
    10. Cociuba, Simona E. & Ueberfeldt, Alexander, 2015. "Heterogeneity and long-run changes in aggregate hours and the labor wedge," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 75-95.
    11. Xiang Wei & Emily Ma & Pengfei Wang, 2017. "Leisure participation patterns and gender wage gap—evidence from Chinese manufacturing industry," China Finance and Economic Review, Springer, vol. 5(1), pages 1-16, December.
    12. Koopmans, Pim & van Lent, Max & Been, Jim, 2024. "Child Penalties and the Gender Gap in Home Production and the Labor Market," IZA Discussion Papers 16871, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Sebastien Buttet & Veronika Dolar, 2015. "Engines of liberation redux when home appliances prices are endogenous [Einfluss des Preises von Haushaltsgeräten auf die Erwerbsbeteiligung von Frauen]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 48(1), pages 27-40, March.
    14. Zhang W.B., 2015. "Birth And Mortality Rates, Gender Division Of Labor, And Time Distribution In The Solow Growth Model," Revista Galega de Economía, University of Santiago de Compostela. Faculty of Economics and Business., vol. 24(1), pages 121-134.
    15. Karapanagiotis, Pantelis & Reimers, Paul, 2024. "Why does the schooling gap close while the wage gap persists across country income comparisons?," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Female labor force participation; Married couples; Family time allocation; Gender earnings gap; Home production; Home appliances;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor
    • E0 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General

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