The Effects of the Family Work Day on Family Time

Laurent Lesnard
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Laurent Lesnard: Crest

No 2005-25, Working Papers from Center for Research in Economics and Statistics

Abstract: The consequences for family time of a double participation to the labor markethave not received a lot of attention yet despite the spectacular growing number ofdual-earner couples. This paper addresses this issue using the two last French timeusesurveys (1985-86 and 1998-99), two of the few surveys with time-useinformation from both spouses. The family time is derived from the `with whom'variable and three kinds of family time are taken into account: conjugal time, fatherand mother time, and couple-children time. They have all considerably increasedover the period studied. A classification of the family workdays is built using aspecial case of Optimal Matching Analysis. The shape of the family workday ishighly correlated with the social position of spouses: the higher the social positionof the spouses, the higher their synchronicity. Desynchronized work schedules aremost of the time not chosen by couples but arise from the individual temporalrequirements of their employers. In other words, desynchronization is a negativetemporal externality affecting unequally dual-earner couples. It is negative fordesynchronicity reduces the time spouses spend together, with or without theirchildren. This negative effect is partially counterbalanced by an increase in the timefathers spend with their children. However, the strength of this effect depends onthe scheduling of desynchronization and this additional father-child time is reducedto recreational activities (leisure and TV).

Pages: 26
Date: 2005
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