Marketization of household production and the EU-US gap in work

Abstract

Jobs and homework, Time-use evidence Employment rates and hours worked per employee are very different in the EU and the US. This paper relates the greater time worked in the US to greater marketization in the US of traditional household production: food preparation, childcare, elderly care, cleaning houses. Since women do most household work, marketization is particularly relevant to the EU–US difference in hours worked by women. We suggest that to raise employment rates the EU should develop policies that make it easier for women to move from the household to the market and to substitute market goods and services for household production. — Richard B. Freeman and Ronald Schettkat