Housework supply function of married women in Tehran

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Conventional economic theory neglects home production and provides services within household because what is produced and consumed within households has not economic value and hence does not enter the national accounts. The main reason of such ignorance is that the home products are not transmitted from market. The history of this viewpoint dates back to the advent of industrialization into the capitalism. Family is a framework for preparation of many worthy commodities in which welfare of individuals is determined while women attend the core of this process. Some economists in the second half of the twentieth century attempted to incorporate housework into the neoclassical theory of labor-leisure choice. Accordingly, this paper also presents an alternative model to analyze such valuable activity called "housework" in which characteristics of Iranian family is more compatible including evident implications. The model leads to a supply function of housework that represents the housework as a negative function of female's wage rate and a positive function of husband's wage and the wife's share from husband's earnings. The method of research is gathering data of married women and analyzing evidence according to econometric equations. These data have been gathered by questionnaire. The housework supply function has been estimated by using a sample that includes 409 married women who reside in Tehran and are at least 35 years old. The estimation is based on logistic distribution function and Maximum Likelihood method. Results suggest that earnings, education, employment and age of women besides family income and marriage duration have negative effect on housework but number of children shows positive impact. As a whole, factors that make market opportunities more attractive tend to lessen the time devoted to housework and vice versa.

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References

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Woman in Development & Politics
Volume 14, Issue 2
July 2016
Pages 141-160

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