Time, money, and inequality

Abstract

The advent of nationally-representative time-use surveys has generated a wave of new empirical research on time devoted to unpaid work and challenged traditional resistance to considering its impact on household living standards. Measurement and valuation of such work can generate estimates of "extended income" on the household level, with significant implications for assessment of income inequality. While few such estimates have been generated to date, this essay argues that they are conceptually desirable, empirically feasible, and politically important. A critical assessment of objections to the valuation of unpaid work provides support for this argument, which is further strengthened by a historical account of the social forces driving the expansion of modern time use surveys.