The Marketization of Home Production: Does Production Time Transfer Between Home and Market?

We use the microeconomic theory that takes into account household production and human activity in the non-market sphere to analyze the phenomena of a macroeconomic nature. We check the activation of women in the labor market, a phenomenon observed in Western European countries and the United States, among others. The decision to become economically active reduces the opportunity to devote time to previously undertaken activities, including a reduction in the time spent on housework. This often involves a significant change in the structure of consumption, which, at the macroeconomic level, is associated with the creation of new jobs and a change in the structure of the economy. Structural change is understood as the transfer of economic activity between the three main sectors of the system, namely agriculture, industry and services. This study uses microeconomic data from two waves of the TUS in Poland. The so-called marketization hypothesis was tested separately for three groups of women aged 18–24, 25–44 and 45–59. When estimating the parameters of the models, characteristics such as having a partner, having children under six and educational attainment were taken into account. The calculations show that women aged 25–44 are relatively active in the labor market, but it is those aged 18–24 who fulfill all of the conditions that support the marketization hypothesis.