Marriage and Housework

Cristina Borra, Martin Browning and Almudena Sevilla ()

No 10740, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: home production; time use; marriage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 J12 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 38 pages
Date: 2017-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published in: Oxford Economic Papers, 2021, 73 (2), 479 - 508

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https://docs.iza.org/dp10740.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Marriage and housework (2021)
Working Paper: Marriage and Housework (2020)
Working Paper: Marriage and Housework (2017)
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