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Automation and the fall and rise of the servant economy

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  • Krenz, Astrid
  • Strulik, Holger

Abstract

We develop a macroeconomic theory of the division of household tasks between servants and own work and how it is affected by automation in households and firms. We calibrate the model for the U.S. and apply it to explain the historical development of household time use and the distribution of household tasks from 1900 to 2020. The economy is populated by high-skilled and low-skilled households and household tasks are performed by own work, machines, or servants. For the period 1900–1960, innovations in household automation motivate the decline of the servant economy and the creation of new household tasks motivates an almost constant division of household time between wage work and domestic work. For the period 1960–2020, innovations in firm automation and the implied increase of the skill premium explain the return of the servant economy. We use counterfactual historical experiments to assess the role of automation, the creation of new household tasks, and the gig economy for the division of household time and tasks. We provide supporting evidence for the relation between automation and inequality, and for inequality as a driver of the return of the servant economy in a regional panel of U.S. metropolitan statistical areas for the period 2005–2020.

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  • Krenz, Astrid & Strulik, Holger, 2025. "Automation and the fall and rise of the servant economy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126593, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:126593
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126593/
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    Cited by:

    1. Hertog, Ekaterina Prof. & Fukuda, Setsuya & Matsukura, Rikiya & Nagase, Nobuko & Lehdonvirta, Vili, 2022. "The future of unpaid work: Estimating the effects of automation on time spent on housework and care work in Japan and the UK," SocArXiv swe7n_v1, Center for Open Science.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    automation; gig economy; home production; inequality; maids; servants;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

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