IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/jgu/wpaper/2209.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Matter of Quality? Experimental Evidence on Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Domestic Services

Author

Listed:
  • Natascha Nisic

    (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

  • Friederike Molitor

    (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

  • Miriam Trübner

    (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

Abstract

Despite a growing need for domestic help, many households refrain from outsourcing their domestic chores to the market. By drawing on transaction cost theory, the present study sheds light on how demand can be stimulated by overcoming trust problems that are related to the quality and professionalisation of domestic services. The experimental findings from our factorial survey (N=4024) further show how state-subsidised service vouchers not only facilitate outsourcing by alleviating budget constraints, but also how they contribute to better pay for domestic workers while simultaneously reducing the costs for households. Overall, the results support recent policy recommendations that emphasise the role of professionalisation, in combination with service voucher systems, in increasingly shifting paid domestic work from the informal to the formal economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Natascha Nisic & Friederike Molitor & Miriam Trübner, 2022. "A Matter of Quality? Experimental Evidence on Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Domestic Services," Working Papers 2209, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    • Handle: RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2209
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://download.uni-mainz.de/RePEc/pdf/Discussion_Paper_2209.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2022
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tilman Bruck & John P. Haisken-De New & Klaus Zimmermann, 2006. "Creating low skilled jobs by subsidizing market-contracted household work," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(8), pages 899-911.
    2. Pollak, Robert A, 1985. "A Transaction Cost Approach to Families and Households," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 581-608, June.
    3. Geissler, Birgit, 2010. "Der private Haushalt als Arbeitsplatzreservoir? Zur Akzeptanz und Abwehr von Haushaltsdienstleistungen," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 63(3), pages 135-142.
    4. Esther de Ruijter & Tanja van der Lippe & Werner Raub, 2003. "Trust Problems in Household Outsourcing," Rationality and Society, , vol. 15(4), pages 473-507, November.
    5. Colin C. Williams & Ioana Alexandra Horodnic & Jan Windebank, 2017. "Explaining participation in the informal economy: a purchaser perspective," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 44(11), pages 1421-1436, November.
    6. Dries Lens & Ive Marx & Jarmila Oslejová & Ninke Mussche, 2021. "Can we steer clear of precariousness in domestic service work? Exploring labour market pathways of Belgian Service Voucher workers," Working Papers 2106, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    7. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ahrens, Jan-Philipp & Landmann, Andreas & Woywode, Michael, 2015. "Gender preferences in the CEO successions of family firms: Family characteristics and human capital of the successor," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 86-103.
    2. James J. Chrisman & Esra Memili & Kaustav Misra, 2014. "Nonfamily Managers, Family Firms, and the Winner's Curse: The Influence of Noneconomic Goals and Bounded Rationality," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(5), pages 1-25, September.
    3. Esther de Ruijter & Tanja van der Lippe & Werner Raub & Jeroen Weesie, 2008. "A Family Affair," Rationality and Society, , vol. 20(2), pages 203-226, May.
    4. Ferdinand Thies & Sören Wallbach & Michael Wessel & Markus Besler & Alexander Benlian, 2022. "Initial coin offerings and the cryptocurrency hype - the moderating role of exogenous and endogenous signals," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 32(3), pages 1691-1705, September.
    5. Anders Gustafsson, 2019. "Busy doing nothing: why politicians implement inefficient policies," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 282-299, September.
    6. Michael Waldman, 1990. "A Signalling Explanation for Seniority Based Promotions and Other Labor Market Puzzles," UCLA Economics Working Papers 599, UCLA Department of Economics.
    7. Stuth, Stefan & Schorlemmer, Julia & Hennig, Marina & Allmendinger, Jutta, 2014. "Freiwilliges Engagement: Ein Patentrezept für Wiedereinsteigerinnen?," Discussion Papers, Presidential Department P 2014-007, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    8. Jitender Singh, 2016. "Quality of Public Goods, Public Policy and Human Development: A State-wise Analysis," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 10(2), pages 215-235, August.
    9. Thomas de Haan & Theo Offerman & Randolph Sloof, 2015. "Money Talks? An Experimental Investigation Of Cheap Talk And Burned Money," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(4), pages 1385-1426, November.
    10. Pavel Ciaian & d'Artis Kancs & Jan Pokrivcak, 2008. "Comparative Advantages, Transaction Costs and Factor Content of Agricultural Trade: Empirical Evidence from the CEE," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2008_03, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    11. Marco Pecoraro, 2014. "Is There Still a Wage Penalty for Being Overeducated But Well-matched in Skills? A Panel Data Analysis of a Swiss Graduate Cohort," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 28(3), pages 309-337, September.
    12. Josse Delfgaauw & Robert Dur, 2008. "Incentives and Workers' Motivation in the Public Sector," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(525), pages 171-191, January.
    13. Douglas Cumming & Lars Hornuf & Moein Karami & Denis Schweizer, 2023. "Disentangling Crowdfunding from Fraudfunding," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1103-1128, February.
    14. Maïlys Korber, 2019. "Does Vocational Education Give a Labour Market Advantage over the Whole Career? A Comparison of the United Kingdom and Switzerland," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(3), pages 202-223.
    15. Andonie, Costel & Kuzmics, Christoph & Rogers, Brian W., 2019. "Efficiency-based measures of inequality," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 60-69.
    16. Kim, Sang-Joon & Bae, John & Oh, Hannah, 2019. "Financing strategically: The moderation effect of marketing activities on the bifurcated relationship between debt level and firm valuation of small and medium enterprises," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 663-681.
    17. Kampelmann, Stephan & Rycx, François, 2012. "The impact of educational mismatch on firm productivity: Evidence from linked panel data," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 918-931.
    18. Benson, Rebecca & von Hippel, Paul T. & Lynch, Jamie L., 2018. "Does more education cause lower BMI, or do lower-BMI individuals become more educated? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 370-377.
    19. Pavel Ciaian & Ján Pokrivčák & Dušan Drabik, 2008. "Prečo sú niektoré sektory v tranzitívnych ekonomikách menej reformované ako ostatné? prípad výskumu a vzdelávania v oblasti ekonómie [Why some sectors of transition economies are less reformed than," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2008(6), pages 819-836.
    20. Eduardo Perez-Richet, 2014. "Interim Bayesian Persuasion: First Steps," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(5), pages 469-474, May.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:jgu:wpaper:2209. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Research Unit IPP (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vlmaide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.