Marriage and Housework

Arbeitspapier

This paper provides insights into the welfare gains of forming a couple by estimating how much of the difference in housework time between single and married individuals is causal and how much is due to selection. Using longitudinal data from Australia, UK and US, we find that selection into marriage by individuals with a higher taste for home-produced goods can explain about half of the observed differences in housework documented in the cross-sectional data. There remains a genuine two-hour increase in housework time for each partner upon marriage, with women specializing in routine, and men specializing in non-routine housework tasks.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 10740

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply
• Subject: marriage ; time use ; home production

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Borra, Cristina ; Browning, Martin J. ; Sevilla, Almudena
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/161363
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET