IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jopoec/v24y2011i1p3-22.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How does household production affect measured income inequality?

Author

Listed:
  • Harley Frazis
  • Jay Stewart

Abstract

Although income inequality has been studied extensively, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of household production. Economic theory predicts that households with less money income will produce more goods at home. Thus extended income, which includes the value of household production, should be more equally distributed than money income. Previous studies have found this to be the case and have speculated that the more-equal distribution of extended income is due to the weak correlation between money income and household production income. We also find that extended income is more equally distributed than money income. The main contribution of our paper is that we identify the reason for this result. Our sensitivity analysis indicates that virtually all of the decline in measured inequality when moving from money income to extended income is due to the addition of a large constant – the average value of household production – to money income and that measured inequality is insensitive to the correlation between money and household production income. The practical importance of this result is that estimates of extended income inequality are robust to imputation procedures and that researchers can obtain accurate estimates of trends by simply using mean values of household production income.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Harley Frazis & Jay Stewart, 2011. "How does household production affect measured income inequality?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(1), pages 3-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:24:y:2011:i:1:p:3-22
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-009-0258-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00148-009-0258-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00148-009-0258-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jens Bonke, 1992. "Distribution Of Economic Resources: Implications Of Including Household Production," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 38(3), pages 281-293, September.
    2. Dirk Kreuger & Fabrizio Perri, 2002. "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption Inequality? Evidence and Theory," Working Papers 02-15, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    3. Gallant, A. Ronald, 1981. "On the bias in flexible functional forms and an essentially unbiased form : The fourier flexible form," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 211-245, February.
    4. repec:bla:revinw:v:43:y:1997:i:2:p:133-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Gronau, Reuben, 1987. "Home production -- A survey," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & R. Layard (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 4, pages 273-304, Elsevier.
    6. Peter Gottschalk & Susan E. Mayer, 1997. "Changes in Home Production and Trends in Economic Inequality," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 382, Boston College Department of Economics.
    7. Peter Gottschalk & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1997. "Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 633-687, June.
    8. Andrews, Donald W. K., 1991. "Asymptotic optimality of generalized CL, cross-validation, and generalized cross-validation in regression with heteroskedastic errors," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2-3), pages 359-377, February.
    9. Cohen, Daniel & Piketty, Thomas & Saint-Paul, Gilles (ed.), 2002. "The Economics of Rising Inequalities," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199254026.
    10. Perri, Fabrizio & Krueger, Dirk, 2002. "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption Inequality?," CEPR Discussion Papers 3583, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. W. Keith Bryant & Cathleen D. Zick, 1985. "Income Distribution Implications of Rural Household Production," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 67(5), pages 1100-1104.
    12. repec:bla:revinw:v:38:y:1992:i:3:p:281-93 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Edward N. Wolff & Ajit Zacharias, 2003. "The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_372, Levy Economics Institute.
    14. David Johnson & Stephanie Shipp, 1997. "Trends In Inequality Using Consumption‐Expenditures: The U.S. From 1960 To 1993," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 43(2), pages 133-152, June.
    15. Atkinson, Anthony B., 1970. "On the measurement of inequality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 244-263, September.
    16. Brooks Pierce, 2001. "Compensation Inequality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 116(4), pages 1493-1525.
    17. Stephen P. Jenkins & Nigel C. O'Leary, 1996. "Household Income Plus Household Production: The Distribution Of Extended Income In The U.K," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 42(4), pages 401-419, December.
    18. repec:bla:revinw:v:42:y:1996:i:4:p:401-19 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Jens Bonke & Mette Deding & Mette Lausten, 2009. "Time and Money," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 113-131, April.
    20. Gronau, Reuben, 1980. "Home Production-A Forgotten Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 62(3), pages 408-416, August.
    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. Harley Frazis & Jay Stewart, 2006. "How Does Household Production Affect Earnings Inequality?: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_454, Levy Economics Institute.
    2. Harley Frazis & Jay Stewart, 2006. "How Does Household Production Affect Earnings Inequality?: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_454, Levy Economics Institute.
    3. Joachim Frick & Markus Grabka & Olaf Groh-Samberg, 2012. "The impact of home production on economic inequality in Germany," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 1143-1169, December.
    4. Cathleen Zick & W. Bryant & Sivithee Srisukhumbowornchai, 2008. "Does housework matter anymore? The shifting impact of housework on economic inequality," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-28, March.
    5. Dirk Krueger & Fabrizio Perri, 2004. "On the Welfare Consequences of the Increase in Inequality in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2003, Volume 18, pages 83-138, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Han, Jeehoon & Meyer, Bruce D. & Sullivan, James X., 2020. "Inequality in the joint distribution of consumption and time use," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    7. Hornstein, Andreas & Krusell, Per & Violante, Giovanni L., 2005. "The Effects of Technical Change on Labor Market Inequalities," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 20, pages 1275-1370, Elsevier.
    8. Jeehoon Han & Caspar Kaiser, 2024. "Time use and happiness: US evidence across three decades," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(1), pages 1-25, March.
    9. Nancy Folbre & Marta Murray-Close & Jooyeoun Suh, 2018. "Equivalence scales for extended income in the U.S," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 189-227, June.
    10. Daniel Suryadarma & Rima Prama Artha & Asep Suryahadi & Sudarno Sumarto, "undated". "A Reassessment of Inequality and Its Role in Poverty Reduction in Indonesia," Working Papers 364, Communications Section.
    11. Córdoba, Juan Carlos & Verdier, Geneviève, 2008. "Inequality and growth: Some welfare calculations," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1812-1829, June.
    12. Heikkilä, Anni & Piekkola, Hannu, 2003. "Economic Inequality and Household Production - The Effects of Specialization of Genders," Discussion Papers 867, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
    13. France Caillavet, 1998. "La production domestique des femmes réduit l'inégalité des revenus familiaux," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 311(1), pages 75-89.
    14. Haichao Fan & Xiang Gao, 2017. "Domestic Creditor Rights and External Private Debt," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(606), pages 2410-2440, November.
    15. Gueorgui Kambourov & Iourii Manovskii, 2000. "Occupational Mobility and Wage Inequality, Second Version," PIER Working Paper Archive 04-026, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 15 Jun 2004.
    16. Russell Davidson & Jean-Yves Duclos, 2000. "Statistical Inference for Stochastic Dominance and for the Measurement of Poverty and Inequality," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(6), pages 1435-1464, November.
    17. Jeremy Lise & Shannon Seitz, 2011. "Consumption Inequality and Intra-household Allocations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 78(1), pages 328-355.
    18. Wu, Ximing & Perloff, Jeffrey M., 2004. "China's Income Distribution Over Time: Reasons for Rising Inequality," Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, Working Paper Series qt9jw2v939, Institute of Industrial Relations, UC Berkeley.
    19. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2007. "Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time Over Five Decades," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 969-1006.
    20. Carola Grün & Stephan Klasen, 2003. "Growth, Income Distribution, and Well-Being: Comparisons across Space and Time," CESifo Working Paper Series 837, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Income distribution; Household production; Time use; D31; D13; J22;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    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:spr:jopoec:v:24:y:2011:i:1:p:3-22. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.