Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/46005 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5253
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
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.
Subjects: 
time use
domestic work
gender
JEL: 
J22
J16
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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