Children's housework - Are girls more active than boys?

Abstract

This paper examines boys' and girls' housework in a Nordic welfare state which is characterized by both high labor market participation rates for mothers and fathers and a narrow income distribution which makes it expensive for ordinary parents to hire paid household help. We use data from the European Community Household Panel Survey 1998 and run tobit-regressions to take the number of children reporting no housework into consideration. The results show that children do only a minor part of the total housework, and that boys participate less than girls. There is a positive impact of mothers' full time work on children's housework, while mothers having a higher education level decrease boys' participation in housework. Finally, the time children spend on paid work is found more positively correlated with girls' than with boys' contributions to housework. JEL-Codes: D13, J13, J16, J22