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Couples’ time together: complementarities in production versus complementarities in consumption

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  • Hani Mansour
  • Terra McKinnish

Abstract

Economists have previously suggested that gains from marriage can be generated by complementarities in production (gains from specialization and exchange) or by complementarities in consumption (gains from joint consumption of household public goods and joint time consumption). This paper uses the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) from 2003 to 2011 to test whether couples that engage in less specialization (are more similar in hours of market work) spend more time together. We find that among married couples without young children, those with a greater difference in weekly hours of work between husband and wife spend less time together on non-working weekend days. Importantly, we find that this relationship is quite symmetric between couples in which the husband works greater hours and couples in which the wife works greater hours. We do not find evidence of a relationship between specialization and couple time together among couples with young children. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

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  • Hani Mansour & Terra McKinnish, 2014. "Couples’ time together: complementarities in production versus complementarities in consumption," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(4), pages 1127-1144, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:27:y:2014:i:4:p:1127-1144
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-014-0510-3
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    1. Martin Browning & Olivier Donni & Mette Gørtz, 2021. "Do you have time to take a walk together? Private and joint time within the household," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(635), pages 1051-1080.
    2. Canaan, Serena, 2022. "Parental leave, household specialization and children’s well-being," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    3. Sergii Maksymovych, 2017. "Decision-Making in the Household and Material Deprivation," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp604, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    4. Katie R. Genadek & Sarah M. Flood & Joan Garcia Roman, 2020. "Same-Sex Couples’ Shared Time in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 475-500, April.
    5. Giacomo Vagni, 2019. "Alone Together: Gender Inequalities in Couple Time," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(3), pages 487-509, December.
    6. Joan García-Román & Sarah Flood & Katie Genadek, 2017. "Parents’ time with a partner in a cross-national context: A comparison of the United States, Spain, and France," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(4), pages 111-144.
    7. Katie R. Genadek & Sarah M. Flood & Joan Garcia Roman, 2016. "Trends in Spouses’ Shared Time in the United States, 1965–2012," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(6), pages 1801-1820, December.
    8. Sørensen, Jesper R.-V. & Fosgerau, Mogens, 2022. "How McFadden met Rockafellar and learned to do more with less," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    9. Benjamin Samuel Ambiel & Ingmar Rapp & Jonathan Simon Gruhler, 2024. "Evening Work and Its Relationship with Couple Time," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 621-635, September.
    10. Katie Vinopal & Seth Gershenson, 2017. "Re-Conceptualizing Gaps by Socioeconomic Status in Parental Time with Children," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 623-643, September.
    11. Liangshu Qi & Haojie Li & Lan Liu, 2017. "A note on Chinese couples’ time synchronization," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1249-1262, December.
    12. Bram Hogendoorn, 2022. "Why do Socioeconomic Differences in Women’s Living Standards Converge After Union Dissolution?," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 38(3), pages 577-622, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Time use; Home production; Gains from marriage; Specialization; J22; J12; J13;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

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