Labor market time and home production: A new test for collective models of intra- household allocation

The allocation of time is a crucial decision that influences many aspects of household welfare, above all consumption, income level and home production. This paper presents a new methodology to estimate woman domestic productivity using a French time use survey, at least whenever the recursivity property for constrained utility maximization with home production applies. It provides empirical evidence not rejecting a collective model of household decision making over working time, as the sum of time spent in domestic production and market labor time. Our results show also that female domestic productivity is a relevant variable explaining intra-household distribution of resources.