 Specialization in same-sex and different-sex couplesThomas Hofmarcher and Erik Plug Labour Economics, 2022, vol. 77, issue C Abstract: We examine time allocation decisions in same-sex and different-sex couples from a Beckerian comparative advantage perspective. In particular, we estimate the comparative advantage relationship between time spent on either market or household activities and a dummy for being the highest earner in a couple on samples of same-sex and different-sex couples. Using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), we find that same-sex couples specialize not as much as different-sex couples. We argue that these specialization differences are driven by the most traditional different-sex couples. Without married couples with wives at home taking care of children and husbands working outside the home, which represent at most 20% of all different-sex couples, we find that the highest earner in a couple spends 80 min more per day on market work and 40 min less per day on household work, regardless their sexual orientation. We therefore conclude that, from a comparative advantage perspective, most same-sex and different-sex couples specialize equally. Keywords: Time allocation; Household work; Market work; Same-sex couples; Different-sex couples; Comparative advantages (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:77:y:2022:i:c:s0927537121000300 DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2021.101995 Access Statistics for this article Labour Economics is currently edited by A. Ichino More articles in Labour Economics from Elsevier |
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