The impact of COVID-19 in the allocation of time within couples. Evidence for Argentina

Victoria Costoya, Lucia Echeverria, María Edo, Ana Rocha and Agustina Thailinger
Additional contact information
Victoria Costoya: CEDH-Universidad de San Andres
Ana Rocha: CEDH-Universidad de San Andres
Agustina Thailinger: CEDH-Universidad de San Andres

No 145, Working Papers from Universidad de San Andres, Departamento de Economia

Abstract: The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown policies on gender gaps remains unclear. While some studies point to equalizing factors (domestic work becomes more visible, flexible remote work arrangements expand) others highlight the potentially inequitable effects associated to women increasing their already disproportionate burden regarding housework and childcare. This paper provides evidence for Argentina. Based on a novel survey, we track changes in time allocation patterns of couples, before and during lockdown. Our results indicate that on average men allocate more time to paid work and less time to unpaid work (housework, childcare, educational support) than women. These within-couple gender gaps suffered opposite changes during lockdown: while the former reduces, the latter increases. However, given the fact that changes in paid work may be driven by more external forces linked to the labor market while modifications in unpaid work allocation probably reflect results of bargaining processes within couples, the latter may probably have longer lasting consequences.

Keywords: time allocation; unpaid work; within-couple gender gaps; COVID19 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 D13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2020-08, Revised 2020-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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https://webacademicos.udesa.edu.ar/pub/econ/doc145.pdf First version, August 2020 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: The impact of COVID-19 in the allocation of time within couples. Evidence for Argentina (2020)
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