Renteneintritt und Hausarbeit

This paper investigates how the retirement of one spouse affects the division of household labor in couples. Two streams of theory can be found explaining the division of household labor. The economic theories predict that the spouse - women or men - how earns less money on the labor market will have higher share of domestic labor. The value based theories explain the division of household labor with shared norms and customs. In couples with conservative values women do most of the household labor, while in modern couples the division is more equal. Applying these two streams of theories to the retirement process two hypotheses are stated: 1) The retirement of a spouse does not affect the division of household labor. 2) The retirement of a spouse does affect the division of household labor. The hypotheses are tested using fixed-effect models and SOEP data. Results show that the share of household labor increases after retirement for men and women alike.