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Inferring Inequality With Home Production

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  • Job Boerma
  • Loukas Karabarbounis

Abstract

We revisit the causes, welfare consequences, and policy implications of the dispersion in households' labor market outcomes using a model with uninsurable risk, incomplete asset markets, and home production. Allowing households to be heterogeneous in both their disutility of home work and their home production efficiency, we find that home production amplifies welfare‐based differences, meaning that inequality in standards of living is larger than we thought. We infer significant home production efficiency differences across households because hours working at home do not covary with consumption and wages in the cross section of households. Heterogeneity in home production efficiency is essential for inequality, as home production would not amplify inequality if differences at home only reflected heterogeneity in disutility of work.

Suggested Citation

  • Job Boerma & Loukas Karabarbounis, 2021. "Inferring Inequality With Home Production," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(5), pages 2517-2556, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:emetrp:v:89:y:2021:i:5:p:2517-2556
    DOI: 10.3982/ECTA15966
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Inferring Inequality with Home Production
      by Christian Zimmermann in NEP-DGE blog on 2018-01-11 22:56:22

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    7. Germain, Antoine, 2023. "Basic income versus fairness: redistribution with inactive agents," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2023022, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
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    9. Lei Fang & Anne Hannusch & Pedro Silos, 2020. "Bundling Time and Goods: Implications for Hours Dispersion," DETU Working Papers 2003, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    10. Isabel Cairo & Shigeru Fujita & Camilo Morales-Jimenez, 2022. "The Cyclicality of Labor Force Participation Flows: The Role of Labor," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 43, pages 197-216, January.
    11. Boerma, Job & Karabarbounis, Loukas, 2020. "Labor market trends and the changing value of time," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    12. Bellmann, Lutz & Hübler, Olaf, 2020. "Job Satisfaction and Work-Life Balance: Differences between Homework and Work at the Workplace of the Company," IZA Discussion Papers 13504, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    15. Theloudis, Alexandros, 2021. "Consumption inequality across heterogeneous families," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    16. Chang, Yongsung & Kim, Sun-Bin & Kwon, Kyooho & Rogerson, Richard, 2020. "Cross-sectional and aggregate labor supply," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    17. Enghin Atalay, 2024. "A twenty-first century of solitude? Time alone and together in the United States," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-33, March.
    18. William Bednar & Nick Pretnar, 2019. "Home Production with Time to Consume," 2019 Meeting Papers 328, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    19. Jim Been & Eduard Suari‐Andreu & Marike Knoef & Rob Alessie, 2024. "Consumption and time use responses to unemployment: Implications for the lifecycle model," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 91(361), pages 1-32, January.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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