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Time Spent in Home Production in the Twentieth-Century United States: New Estimates from Old Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Valerie A. Ramey
Valerie A. Ramey*
Affiliation:
Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, 0508, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0508, and Research Associate, NBER. E-mail: vramey@ucsd.edu.
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Abstract

This article presents new estimates of time spent in home production in the United States during the twentieth century. Historical time-diary studies for various segments of the population are linked to estimates from recent time use surveys. The new estimates suggest that time spent in home production by prime-age women fell by around six hours from 1900 to 1965 and by another 12 hours from 1965 to 2005. Time spent by prime-age men rose by 13 hours from 1900 to 2005. Average across the entire population, per capita time spent in home production increased slightly over the century.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 69 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 1 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2009

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