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Her Time, His Time, or the Maid's Time: An Analysis of the Demand for Domestic Work

Author

Listed:
  • Stancanelli, Elena G. F.

    (Paris School of Economics)

  • Stratton, Leslie S.

    (Virginia Commonwealth University)

Abstract

This paper analyzes households' demand for time inputs to domestic services, modeling simultaneously the decision to purchase services in the market and the time spent on weekend and weekday days by each partner on routine household chores. By focusing on cleaning, laundry, and ironing, we reduce the likelihood that preferences matter and increase the overlap with market services. Particular emphasis is placed on estimating the effects of prices, as captured by own and partner wages and the market price for domestic services. We exploit time-diary data for Great Britain and France, relying on cross-country comparisons to generalize our findings. The results indicate that prices strongly influence market purchases, and that maid service is a closer substitute for household time on weekends than weekdays, but is also correlated with 'her' weekday time. More generally, we find that women's wages have a stronger association with the inputs to domestic work than any other price measure.

Suggested Citation

  • Stancanelli, Elena G. F. & Stratton, Leslie S., 2010. "Her Time, His Time, or the Maid's Time: An Analysis of the Demand for Domestic Work," IZA Discussion Papers 5253, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5253
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ali Fakih & Pascal L. Ghazalian, 2013. "Female Labour Force Participation in MENA's Manufacturing Sector: The Implications of Firm-related and National Factors," CIRANO Working Papers 2013s-46, CIRANO.
    3. François-Xavier Devetter, 2016. "Can Public Policies Bring about the Democratization of the Outsourcing of Household Tasks?," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 48(3), pages 365-393, September.
    4. Krenz, Astrid & Strulik, Holger, 2022. "Automation and the Fall and Rise of the Servant Economy," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264034, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Fakih, Ali & Marrouch, Walid, 2012. "Determinants of Domestic Workers' Employment: Evidence from Lebanese Household Survey Data," IZA Discussion Papers 6822, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Ali Fakih & Walid Marrouch, 2014. "Who hires foreign domestic workers? evidence from Lebanon," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 48(3), pages 339-352, July-Sept.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    time use; domestic work; gender;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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

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