Maids' Services as a Substitute Factor in Home-Production

Ana Fava and Mary Arends-Kuenning

No 08_10, Working Papers from Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade de Ribeirão Preto

Abstract: While maid's services are considered luxury goods in developed countries, that is not always the case in developing countries. Economists believe that the reason for that is the availability of cheap unskilled labor supply in developing countries. However, few attention has been given to the scarcity of durable goods used in home-production in developing countries households. The same durable goods that are considered necessity on developed countries. This paper investigates the role of women's bar- gaining power, women's shadow price of time, and family composition in deciding on expenditures in production durable goods and maid's services. The test of bargaining power indicates that the expenditure on home-production factors is an outcome of a bargaining process. Households in which the wife has higher schooling than husband, the relative probability of having maid's services is higher. The results of the di erence of husbands' and wives' education are consistent with the intrahousehold time allocation, where wives that have comparative advantage in market work are more likely to substitute market goods for home-production. Wives that do not have comparative advantage in market work specialize in home- production, demanding more time-saving durable goods. There is no evidence of parental preferences for sons or daughters. However, there is evidence that daughters' time substitutes wives's time and maid's services in home-production.

Keywords: Intrahousehold allocation; durable goods ownership; maid's services; parental preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 D13 J12 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-10
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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