The Gender Division of Work across Countries

Charles Gottlieb (), Cheryl Doss (), Douglas Gollin () and Markus Poschke
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Charles Gottlieb: Aix Marseille University

No 16896, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Across countries, women and men allocate time differently between market work, domestic services, and care work. In this paper, we document the gender division of work, drawing on a new harmonized data set that provides us with high-quality time use data for 50 countries spanning the global income distribution. A striking feature of the data is the wide dispersion across countries at similar income levels. We use these data to motivate a macroeconomic model of household time use in which country-level allocations are shaped by wages and a set of "wedges" that resemble productivity, preferences, and disutilities. Taking the model to country-level observations, we find that a wedge related to the disutility of market work for women plays a crucial role in generating the observed dispersion of outcomes, particularly for middle-income countries. Variation in the division of non-market work is principally shaped by a wedge indicating greater disutility for men, which is especially large in some low- and middle-income countries.

Keywords: labor supply; home production; care work; time use; gender inequality; gender norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J16 J22 O11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 66 pages
Date: 2024-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: THE GENDER DIVISION OF WORK ACROSS COUNTRIES (2024)
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