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Time Use of Mothers and Fathers in Hard Times and Better Times: the U.S. Business Cycle of 2003-2010

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  • Günseli Berik
  • Ebru Kongar

Abstract

The U.S. economic crisis and recession of 2007-2009 accelerated the convergence of womens and mens employment rates as men experienced disproportionate job losses and womens entry into the labor force gathered pace. Using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) data for 2003-2010, this study examines whether the narrowing gap in paid work over this period was mirrored in unpaid work, personal care and leisure time. We find that the gender gap in unpaid work followed a U-pattern, narrowing during the recession but widening afterwards. Through segregation analysis we trace this U-pattern to the slow erosion of gender segregation in housework and through a standard decomposition analysis of time use by employment status we show that this pattern was mainly driven by movement towards gender equitable unpaid hours of women and men with the same employment status. In addition, over the business cycle gender inequality in leisure time increased.

Suggested Citation

  • Günseli Berik & Ebru Kongar, 2011. "Time Use of Mothers and Fathers in Hard Times and Better Times: the U.S. Business Cycle of 2003-2010," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2011_16, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:uta:papers:2011_16
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    Cited by:

    1. Gunseli Berik & Ebru Kongar, 2012. "Time Use of Mothers and Fathers in Hard Times: The US Recession of 2007-09," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_726, Levy Economics Institute.
    2. Marina Gorsuch, 2016. "Decomposing the increase in men’s time on childcare during the great recession," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 53-82, March.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    J16; J22; J64 JEL Classification: Economics of Gender; Unemployment; Time Use; Economic Crises;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J64 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search

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