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By Alexander M. Gelber

When tax incentives draw single women into the labour force, what activities do they sacrifice? Do they spend less time enjoying leisure? Do they cut back on household chores? Do they give up time with their children?

Over the past thirty years, US policymakers tried to increase participation of single mothers in the labour force by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and reforming the welfare system. One key motivation for reform was the perception that some single mothers were choosing to be idle and instead ought to contribute more productively to society by working. But did the policy reforms induce single mothers to shift from one productive activity – work at home – to another – work in the market? In a new paper published in the Review of Economic Studies, we find that the answer is “yes”: tax policy largely shifts single women between work at home and work in the market. Interestingly, however, when tax incentives draw them into the labour force, they may not cut much from their “quality time” with their children.

Remarkable patterns in the data suggest that tax policy had a very important effect on the labour supply and housework decisions of single women over this period. From the mid-1980s to the mid-to-late-1990s, the incentive to participate in the labour force greatly increased for single women with children relative to those without children. This was largely due to major expansions of the Earned Income Tax Credit—which transfers money to low-income single households only if they participate in the labor force—and cutbacks in welfare, both of which impacted low-income single women.

The figure below shows that over the same period of years, hours of market work for single women with children increased substantially relative to those without children, as previous literature has documented. This suggests that the changes in policy may have been responsible for the large changes in market work over the same period.

Strikingly, the pattern for housework looks like a mirror image of the pattern for market work. Hours of housework fell substantially for women with children relative to those without children over the period of the primary policy changes, with little relative change outside of this period. The relative fall in housework accounts for over half of the relative increase in market work, suggesting that most of the change in market work came out of housework. We find that for every additional hour that a single woman spends working in the market in response to a change in tax policy, she spends about 40 minutes less time working at home.

Mean usual hours of market work and housework of single women with and without children, 1975-2004

Importantly, we find no evidence that single women’s amount of time spent with children (as the primary activity, i.e. “quality time”) decreases significantly. We also find that single women’s time spent eating and preparing food decreases and that time spent sleeping changes insignificantly.

We find evidence that single women’s purchases of food away from home, such as takeout and restaurant meals, increase in response to an increase in the incentive to participate in the labour force. This makes sense: Women are busier when they enter the labour force and make up some of the time by purchasing food prepared by others instead of themselves. We also find some evidence that overall food purchases rise. Single women thus appear to use market goods to substitute for time: they become busier when they enter the labor force and save time by buying food in the market instead of themselves spending time on food.

Interestingly, howev

I read a book last night. Nothing new there you might think, but this one set me thinking about the creative process.
It’s an old book published in 1990 and written by a US online friend under the name ‘Katherine Blake.’ In it the heroine day dreams a conventional, if well thought out fantasy story which develops against the background of her daily ‘chores’. Moreover the characters she invents help her to get a grip on her mundane life: advising her on redecorating her house, sewing and baking, encouraging her to develop her musical and artistic tastes and to learn about the medieval period so that her husband gets a promotion and she gets self esteem, friends - and a more successful husband.
It was very much a product of its time and place - the domestic milieu of small town America in the eighties seemed if anything more exotic than the fantasy, but it is an interesting idea. My first thought was that I’m glad that my husband has never had to rely on the quality of my housekeeping to get a promotion, but the second was that creativity just doesn’t work like that for me. It is a very romantic idea that while washing up or listening to a boring conversation you can envisage scenes from a novel, that characters can give you sartorial advice ( just as well as mine seem to wear altogether too much chain mail which is a tad impractical for everyday) or even that the courage of your heroes can give you confidence in awkward situations. Surely that’s just wishful thinking?
And yet... honesty obliges me to admit that I do imagine my characters talking. When a book is going well they play out scenes when I’m walking the dog or lying idle in the bath. They don’t ever talk to me directly (no voices in my head no, no, none of that here!) and they are strangely silent when I’m listening to a boring conversation or needing help with cooking, but I have broken off in the middle of doing something sensible to scribble a solution to a knotty problem on a spare scrap of paper. In occasional moments of stress or when teenagers have been particularly difficult, I have even imagined myself to be a six foot female warrior who takes no prisoners and has a very big sword.
So, as often happens, my third thought is a radical departure from my first two. Maybe my friend had a point? Real life and work do get more confused than they probably should and creativity is not something that you can keep in a box, but an invasive, transformative and often inconvenient manifestation of a little bit of madness in even the most well ordered of lives...

Cooking:

Create cucumber soup the easy way - a month or so in the fridge should do it.

Make sure that you always use the weakest knife in the house when chopping carrots (raw) so the blade snaps and stick into your hand. Now make sure you chop (after finding the one knife you always use) onions and let the juice get into new cut. Next chop a chilli and or pepper, which eyes are stinging from onion fumes….rub eyes. Place all vegetables that needs boiling into a large pot. Do not place on any heat…then wonder why it’s not warming up 10 minutes later.

If you spill icing sugar on the floor, getting out the mop is an excellent way of ensuring that the entire kitchen becomes beautifully iced. Even better, if you did this whilst taking the icing sugar out of the cupboard, and got it over you, there is endless fun to be had in trying to wash your hair.

When using the tried and tested technique of pouring a hot drink from one mug to another to cool it down, get into a rhythm and end up tipping both mugs at the same time to release the still scalding hot choc into your lap. Hours of fun as you try to remove trousers, clean up sticky mess and cry about your own stupidity all at once…

Be adventurous at your next conference. Try a new type of coffee (latte & espresso are so old hat). Why not push the button labelled jug coffee?…..

When making jam make sure you boil it all over the cooker and generally get every surface sticky. Then burn yourself trying to get it out the pan before it sets.

It’s always a good idea to let the children make real lemonade without any adult supervision. That way you get to spend the next week wiping sticky lemon juice from every surface in the kitchen, including the floor.

Store glass Pyrex jugs on the highest possible shelf, particularly if you are a little challenged in the height department. Then, when you are in a rush to get one down you won’t quite be able to get hold of it and it will smash onto the worktop, then onto the floor in a spectacular fashion. You’ll be finding tiny shards of glass for weeks; it’s especially important to have bare feet for this.

When opening the oven door make sure you immediately bend down to check what is in the oven so that your new glasses steam up and you are made temporarily blind, thus bumping into the kitchen cupboard door that has been left open.

Having dropped a full egg box on the floor, make the clean up job easy by allowing your puppy to lick up the mess. That way you can delight in the sick that he subsequently produces all over your cream sofa.

Putting in your contact lenses moments before your dinner guests arrive having just chopped up chillies for your Thai green curry makes for an interesting look.

Clothes:

When you buy a new iron, turn it on and apply it to black linen trousers before checking whether the plate has a protective plastic film on it.

When child returns from four day pop festival; throw bag, you are assured only contains washing, into machine after a cursory check through. Be amazed when you empty machine to find you have washed a frankfurter sausage, a sachet of handwipes, a deodorant and an orange. Be further amazed when two washed jelly babies falls out of a pair of socks, completely transparent and colourless but otherwise intact and apparently holding hands!

When in a hurry to iron your son’s school trousers in the morning don’t bother to get out the ironing board. Put a towel, the thinnest one you can find on the lounge floor. Proceed to iron the towel first to flatten it and leave a deep, perfect iron shape in your 2 month old very expensive carpet.

Why on earth would anyone consider using central heating to heat their home? (that’s soooo 70’s!). It’s 2010 kids, get with it. I prefer to iron a shirt in the morning and leave the iron on all day. Not only does it pump heat out but the friction from my electricity meter spinning round at 5000rpm also adds significantly to the ambient temperature.

General:

Leave your passport somewhere you will never remember to look again whilst repeating the following phrase firmly “I must put that somewhere safe later on”. Only remember where you forgot to put it the night before your flight. This will take your mind off worrying about who to ask to look after the cat/dog/goldfish while you are away.

After painting your nails dip your fingers in a basin of cold water as it makes them dry quicker… if you’re after an interesting pattern on your towels then after removing your hands from the water instead of letting them dry by the wonder of evaporation, dry them with a bath towel. The newer the towel the fluffier our nails will appear!

Make sure when you sell items on e-bay that you set the pay pal details to an in-active account, this will ensure loads of stress and also make you look like a dodgy seller as you suddenly ask for alternative payment methods!

If popping out late at night (to the bin, say) it’s best to go barefoot, then at least treading on a hedgehog is less painful for the critter, and it also improves your reaction time.

When moving into a new house, make sure that the first thing you do to test out the plumbing is have a long, luxurious bubble bath. For added effect, make sure that you are not the only person in the house when you pull out the plug, and the water comes pouring through the badly connected pipes into the living room below, thus giving your husband a “free” shower.

When moving car out of garage. Take the hint that the opening to the big wide world is BEHIND you and put the car into reverse - do not try first gear at full throttle.

Remember to take your seatbelt off before attempting to leave your vehicle.

You might also like:

Household Hints & Tips For The Harassed Housewife

With this ring I thee wed - an alternative look at wedded bliss

If you liked this….

More of my articles on a wide variety of subjects can be found via the links on my blog –> misty’s articles online

Cooking:

Create cucumber soup the easy way - a month or so in the fridge should do it.

Make sure that you always use the weakest knife in the house when chopping carrots (raw) so the blade snaps and stick into your hand. Now make sure you chop (after finding the one knife you always use) onions and let the juice get into new cut. Next chop a chilli and or pepper, which eyes are stinging from onion fumes….rub eyes. Place all vegetables that needs boiling into a large pot. Do not place on any heat…then wonder why it’s not warming up 10 minutes later.

If you spill icing sugar on the floor, getting out the mop is an excellent way of ensuring that the entire kitchen becomes beautifully iced. Even better, if you did this whilst taking the icing sugar out of the cupboard, and got it over you, there is endless fun to be had in trying to wash your hair.

When using the tried and tested technique of pouring a hot drink from one mug to another to cool it down, get into a rhythm and end up tipping both mugs at the same time to release the still scalding hot choc into your lap. Hours of fun as you try to remove trousers, clean up sticky mess and cry about your own stupidity all at once…

Be adventurous at your next conference. Try a new type of coffee (latte & espresso are so old hat). Why not push the button labelled jug coffee?…..

When making jam make sure you boil it all over the cooker and generally get every surface sticky. Then burn yourself trying to get it out the pan before it sets.

It’s always a good idea to let the children make real lemonade without any adult supervision. That way you get to spend the next week wiping sticky lemon juice from every surface in the kitchen, including the floor.

Store glass Pyrex jugs on the highest possible shelf, particularly if you are a little challenged in the height department. Then, when you are in a rush to get one down you won’t quite be able to get hold of it and it will smash onto the worktop, then onto the floor in a spectacular fashion. You’ll be finding tiny shards of glass for weeks; it’s especially important to have bare feet for this.

When opening the oven door make sure you immediately bend down to check what is in the oven so that your new glasses steam up and you are made temporarily blind, thus bumping into the kitchen cupboard door that has been left open.

Having dropped a full egg box on the floor, make the clean up job easy by allowing your puppy to lick up the mess. That way you can delight in the sick that he subsequently produces all over your cream sofa.

Putting in your contact lenses moments before your dinner guests arrive having just chopped up chillies for your Thai green curry makes for an interesting look.

Clothes:

When you buy a new iron, turn it on and apply it to black linen trousers before checking whether the plate has a protective plastic film on it.

When child returns from four day pop festival; throw bag, you are assured only contains washing, into machine after a cursory check through. Be amazed when you empty machine to find you have washed a frankfurter sausage, a sachet of handwipes, a deodorant and an orange. Be further amazed when two washed jelly babies falls out of a pair of socks, completely transparent and colourless but otherwise intact and apparently holding hands!

When in a hurry to iron your son’s school trousers in the morning don’t bother to get out the ironing board. Put a towel, the thinnest one you can find on the lounge floor. Proceed to iron the towel first to flatten it and leave a deep, perfect iron shape in your 2 month old very expensive carpet.

Why on earth would anyone consider using central heating to heat their home? (that’s soooo 70’s!). It’s 2010 kids, get with it. I prefer to iron a shirt in the morning and leave the iron on all day. Not only does it pump heat out but the friction from my electricity meter spinning round at 5000rpm also adds significantly to the ambient temperature.

General:

Leave your passport somewhere you will never remember to look again whilst repeating the following phrase firmly “I must put that somewhere safe later on”. Only remember where you forgot to put it the night before your flight. This will take your mind off worrying about who to ask to look after the cat/dog/goldfish while you are away.

After painting your nails dip your fingers in a basin of cold water as it makes them dry quicker… if you’re after an interesting pattern on your towels then after removing your hands from the water instead of letting them dry by the wonder of evaporation, dry them with a bath towel. The newer the towel the fluffier our nails will appear!

Make sure when you sell items on e-bay that you set the pay pal details to an in-active account, this will ensure loads of stress and also make you look like a dodgy seller as you suddenly ask for alternative payment methods!

If popping out late at night (to the bin, say) it’s best to go barefoot, then at least treading on a hedgehog is less painful for the critter, and it also improves your reaction time.

When moving into a new house, make sure that the first thing you do to test out the plumbing is have a long, luxurious bubble bath. For added effect, make sure that you are not the only person in the house when you pull out the plug, and the water comes pouring through the badly connected pipes into the living room below, thus giving your husband a “free” shower.

When moving car out of garage. Take the hint that the opening to the big wide world is BEHIND you and put the car into reverse - do not try first gear at full throttle.

Remember to take your seatbelt off before attempting to leave your vehicle.

You might also like:

Household Hints & Tips For The Harassed Housewife

With this ring I thee wed - an alternative look at wedded bliss

If you liked this….

More of my articles on a wide variety of subjects can be found via the links on my blog, click here for the link -> misty’s articles online

With this ring I thee wed… and now I expect…

To never have to do the dishes again

To never need to cook a meal again

To have my meal given to me when I come in, regardless of time and yes I will complain if it isn’t ready or is ruined

To allow the pets to lick clean the plates I can’t be bothered to move off the floor

To let mould grow in my old coffee mugs

To leave my laundry around the house and have you clear it up

To not have to figure out how the washing machine works

To not have to learn how to use an iron

To expect you to have a full time job and do all the housework

To not have to tidy up – that’s YOUR job

To not have to lift a finger around the house – unless I want to

To go out with my mates on a drinking binge and not tell you when I am coming home

To forget birthdays and anniversaries

To think a bunch of garage flowers is a sufficient apology

To spend ages talking about how great my car is and not notice your new hairdo or clothes

To think “facebooking” is a good way to communicate with you

To have a better relationship with my computer and blackberry than you

To know more about my online buddies than you

To expect hugs, cuddles and *** when I want it

To expect you to look after the kids and deal with discipline

To sit in my underpants all weekend if I want to

To spread out across the bed and have all the duvet if I want

To snore all night and refuse to use the spare room

To stay in bed for as long as I want

To drink beer in front of the TV and watch sports

To fart in bed, heck to fart anywhere!

To let myself go – I don’t need the gym body any more

Well heck darlin’ what do you expect??? I married ya didn’t I…!

Yes my darling you did but after all that… here’s the number of my divorce lawyer!

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia