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Parents' Time Allocation in Different Phases of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the UK and Implications for Gender Equality

Author

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  • Panayiota Lyssiotou
  • Ruzica Savcic
Abstract
We exploit the changes in the distancing measures instituted by the UK government in the different phases of the pandemic to identify the impact on the daily lives of couples with children and gender equality within the household. We estimate a weighted tobit simultaneous system of market, housework and child care hours of parents and correct for possible endogeneity of the wages. We find that once the restrictive measures were lifted there was a significant increase in the hours of paid work and decrease in the hours of housework and childcare of both parents. The changes were not significantly different among the two parents. These findings confirm previous evidence that access to market childcare services increases the working hours of mothers. They also indicate that the initial pandemic shock did not eliminate pre-pandemic inequalities in the labour market and division of housework and childcare among parents with underage children. The evidence tends to suggest that changes in gender norms for more equality within the family are more likely to occur when the shock is enforced by law or has a long enough duration to change the behaviour of men and women and shape the norms of the next generation.

Suggested Citation

  • Panayiota Lyssiotou & Ruzica Savcic, 2022. "Parents' Time Allocation in Different Phases of the Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the UK and Implications for Gender Equality," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 03-2022, University of Cyprus Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucy:cypeua:03-2022
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    File URL: https://papers.econ.ucy.ac.cy/RePEc/papers/03-2022.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    time allocation; COVID-19; gender equity; labour supply; housework; childcare;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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