OPPORTUNITY COST OF HOUSEHOLD WORK: GENDER PERSPECTIVE FOR PAKISTAN

Abstract

Time allocation has always been considered an important factor to manage household activities for working hours and leisure. Females spent their substantial time to domestic chores, hence these responsibilities bounds their economic opportunities. The opportunity cost of household work especially for female accounted for higher therefore a vast segment of the society remains deprived and are not allowed to play their role in the labor market. The objective of the study is to find the opportunity cost of household work by region, province, age group, and gender for a different types of activities. Further study also explores the gender gap of household hours by Oaxaca and Blinder decomposition. Data for this study is gathered from the Labour Force Survey of Pakistan (LFS) for the period 2014-2015 and 2017-18. The findings of this study reveal that female household hours exceed male household hours. The opportunity cost of cooking and child-care are higher in rural and urban Punjab for females, while the opportunity cost for males is higher for firewood collection and fetching water. Key Words: Time Allocation, Household Work, Opportunity Cost, Oaxaca Blinder Decomposition JEL Classification: J22, D13, J3, B41