Periodic Reporting for period 1 - GenderedTimeUse (Time Allocation of Men and Women in India: The Role of Bargaining Power)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-05-01 al 2025-08-31
The time allocated to various activities shapes the economy by influencing the relative prices of goods and services, the growth of real output, and the income distribution. At the micro-level, how individuals use their time has consequences for their health and overall well-being. Consequently, economists have exploited time-use data to study economic behavior. In particular, they paid considerable attention to differences between how the two partners in a couple spend their time. This has primarily been done in developed countries, whereas couples' time allocation across paid and unpaid activities in developing countries remains understudied.
The project contributes to the literature by studying the time allocation of couples in India, with a focus on gender differences and the role of relative education. In addition, the project examines within-gender bargaining by examining how co-resident female in-laws in multigenerational families in India bargain about time allocations. Finally, the project contributes to a novel question by considering the long-term health impacts of residents who face a delayed sunset time. While there is some evidence at developed countries, this is the first time that such evidence is provided for a middle-income country, namely, India.
All the research works conducted as a part of the Fellowship involve econometric techniques to draw insights into the economic behavior of individuals. The research contributes to the discourse on Sustainable Development Goal 5.
The project contributes to the literature by studying the time allocation of couples in India, with a focus on gender differences and the role of relative education. In addition, the project examines within-gender bargaining by examining how co-resident female in-laws in multigenerational families in India bargain about time allocations. Finally, the project contributes to a novel question by considering the long-term health impacts of residents who face a delayed sunset time. While there is some evidence at developed countries, this is the first time that such evidence is provided for a middle-income country, namely, India.
All the research works conducted as a part of the Fellowship involve econometric techniques to draw insights into the economic behavior of individuals. The research contributes to the discourse on Sustainable Development Goal 5.
This project involves three research projects, primarily using the Time Use Survey 2019 and 2024, India Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2015-16 and 2019-21. The surveys used for this project are nationally representative and provide a host of demographic, health and time-use information for all residents of India. In the first and third research projects, we try to examine the causal impact of acquiring a higher education on time allocation. In the second research project, we examine the causal impact of exogenous sunset time on long-term health outcomes, and examine how short-term behavior, such as differential time allocations drive our results. In all the projects, we show the gendered impacts of time allocations and conclude that a lot of work remains if India were to achieve gender-equal time allocations.
The main achievements are (1) the working papers that are available under open access arrangements to encourage further discourse on this topic (2) the novel evidence that is provided for developing country contexts, which was not present before.
The main achievements are (1) the working papers that are available under open access arrangements to encourage further discourse on this topic (2) the novel evidence that is provided for developing country contexts, which was not present before.
This project is the first to show how couples bargain for time allocations in low-middle-income country settings, something that was missing in the literature. Second, it is the first to show that the effect of geographic and climatic factors, such as sunset time, and weather controls, such as temperature and precipitation, have very different effects on developing countries, relative to developed countries. Thus, the project pushes the boundary of thinking by reinforcing the fact that results are not generalisable across countries and cultural factors and societal norms can play a strong role.