Gender Differences in Time Allocation to Paid and Unpaid Work: Evidence from Urban Guatemala 2000-2014

This study examines the effects of individual and household characteristics on the time allocation decision for both women and men and how these effects have evolved over time in Urban Guatemala using data from the National Survey of Living Conditions (ENCOVI 2000 and 2004). A multivariate Tobit is built to model the decision of individuals to allocate time distinguishing three time uses: housework childcare and paid work. The results reveal that time allocation is largely determined by gender. For both periods on average women devote more time to housework and childcare than men while men spent more hours in paid work than their counterparts. Although offering less hours of paid work women frequently accumulate both unpaid and paid work while men specialize in the market work. Moreover women’s time allocation is more responsive to individuals and household characteristics than men’s in both periods. Finally we find that educational attainment play an important role in shaping how individuals allocate their time between market and non-market activities especially for women. For instance while housework time is negatively associated with education level time devoted to childcare increases with instruction. Keywords: time use gender housework childcare paid work Guatemala