Page 391 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 6

CPS1993 Asmae Mhmmoudi
long hours in the labor market spend less time on housework than non-
employed.

5. Result: housework and childcare
In the estimation of the four equations of this section, the housing
variables are excluded from the childcare equations, while the dummy
variables of number of children are excluded from the housework equations.
Overall, the findings of the estimation of men’s housework equation are
similar to the first section. All the variables that have previously significant
effects on men’s time spent doing unpaid work remain significant and keep
the same signs but the effects are mostly smaller in the case of housework’s
time estimation. However, the results are slightly different for the estimation
of fathers’ time spent caring for children. The marginal effects of the variable
of the presence of children have become significant. This significant effect
suggests that time spent with children is considered as investment for fathers.
This is somewhat similar to the result of Mette Deding and Mette Lauste (2006).
Furthermore, the reduced effect of explanatory variables on time spent by men
in housework could now be explained by more performance in childcare
activities. Moreover, fathers living cities devoted more time caring for children
compare to those living rural areas.

6. Conclusion
This paper has examined the influence of socio demographic background
on time spent by Moroccan couples unpaid work. Beyond analyzing the time
devoted to unpaid work, a separate estimation of unpaid work into housework
and childcare has done also in order to see the structural differences that could
exist between housework time allocation and childcare time allocation.
The results of the first part of estimation show a significant effect of the
place of residence on couple’s time allocation to unpaid work., in the sense
that living in urban area reduce their share of unpaid work. Moreover,
husbands living in cities with high education devote more time to unpaid work.
A similar effect is also founded when they are inactive or unemployed, which
could be explained by the fact that the reduced market work is offset by more
activity in the household. However, contrary to mothers, the presence of
children is without effect on time devoted to unpaid work of fathers.
One of the main results of the second part of estimations is that the
number of children in the household matters significantly the time spent
caring of children for both mothers and fathers. Nevertheless, this effect is
more important among women compare to men. Furthermore, women living
in large housing or with many persons perform a higher share of housework.

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