"Time to Do the Chores?" Factoring Home-Production Needs into Measures of Poverty

Currently, income is the only resource that the government uses to measure poverty. However, in order for a family to maintain an adequate standard of living, its members must have the money and the time to do certain kinds of work in the home, such as child care, food shopping, meal preparation, la...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of family and economic issues 2000-04, Vol.21 (1), p.7-22
Main Author: Douthitt, Robin A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child care
Consumption
Economic growth
Economic indicators
Economic statistics
Economic theory
Families & family life
Food
GDP
Gross Domestic Product
Households
Housework
Human ecology
Lifestyles
Measures (Instruments)
Parents & parenting
Poverty
Single parents
Social Indicators
Standard of Living
Studies
Time management
Time use
Time Utilization
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Summary:Currently, income is the only resource that the government uses to measure poverty. However, in order for a family to maintain an adequate standard of living, its members must have the money and the time to do certain kinds of work in the home, such as child care, food shopping, meal preparation, laundry, housecleaning, and other similar household tasks. In this article, poverty rates are recalculated using a method developed by Vickery (1977) in which time is incorporated as a resource. Findings show that poverty rates increase dramatically when time is incorporated as a resource because working parents, especially single parents, often do not have enough time to perform essential tasks. Data are from the 1985 American Time Use Survey. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:1058-0476
1573-3475