Household Production Theory

Treat Household as a Firm

Output is Utility
G=goods
T= Time
U = F(G, T)
 Household Production Theory

Goods

Isoquant; Slope = -(MUt /MUG)

G0
Budget constraint; Slope = -(W/P)

t0 Home Time
 Wages and Goods Intensive vs
Time Intensive Home Production

How do we cook?
Huffman, 2006. “The Story Behind the Post-War Decline in Women’s Housework: Prices, Income,
Family Size and Technology Effects in a Demand System
Huffman, 2006. “The Story Behind the Post-War Decline in Women’s Housework: Prices, Income,
Family Size and Technology Effects in a Demand System
 Daily time allocation to meal preparation, by gender and income

Lisa Mancino and Constance Newman Who Has Time To Cook? How Family Resources Influence Food
Preparation May 2007. USDA ERRN 40. http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/ERR40/err40.pdf
 Daily time allocation to meal preparation for women, by income and market
work intensity

Lisa Mancino and Constance Newman Who Has Time To Cook? How Family Resources Influence Food
Preparation May 2007. USDA ERRN 40. http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/ERR40/err40.pdf
 Births per 1000 women aged 15-44, 1920-1998

140

120

100

80
Rate

60
Depression
40

20

0
1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
Year
Quantity Quality Tradeoff in
Fertility Behavior

How do wages affect household

size?
Mammen, Kristen and Christina Paxson. “Women’s Work and Economic Development.”
Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (Fall 2000): 141-162.
Mammen, Kristen and Christina Paxson. “Women’s Work and Economic Development.”
Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (Fall 2000): 141-162.
How should spouses divide
market and home time?

How do relative wages affect time

allocation?
Weekly Hours Spent in Work and Leisure by Men and Women,
Age 25-64, in the United States, 1965–1981
Average time in home production per
week for married men and women

Men 17.7
Women 29.8

Men spend 9 more hours per week in the labor market

Hersch and Stratton, Journal of Human Resources, Winter 2002.

Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Variations in Time Use at Stages of the Life Cycle.” Monthly Labor Review 128
(September 2005): 38-45.
 Father

Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Variations in Time Use at Stages of the Life Cycle.” Monthly Labor Review 128
(September 2005): 38-45.
 Minutes per day spent in total market and nonmarket work for men
and women, 21 countries

Equal minutes per day

Fitted line,
nonMeditaranean countries

Fitted line, Meditaranean

countries

U.S. difference is 4
minutes

Michael Burda, Daniel Hamermesh, and Philippe Weil. 2006. "TOTAL WORK,
GENDER AND SOCIAL NORMS,"