Should We Cheer Together? Gender Differences in Instantaneous Well-being: An Application to COVID-19 Lockdowns

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has confined millions in their homes, an unprecedented opportunity to spend more time together with family members. This paper explores subjective well-being in the uses of time for US and UK workers, differentiating between solo activities and activities done with family members, at home and outside the home. Using American and British time use surveys, we compute the instant utility associated with paid work, unpaid work, leisure, and childcare activities. OLS regressions on both men and women show that workers prefer joint leisure to solo leisure, and that significant differences exist for solo and joint market work and housework, between the sexes. Despite that, the effect magnitudes are relatively low. Furthermore, we simulate a strict lockdown situation by replacing where and with whom worker episodes would be, based on mid-2020 strict confinements. Results suggest diverging effects, since more time with the spouse/partner and children, and less time with others, seems to increase the experienced wellbeing of women, compared to that of men. The simulation exercise also reveals asymmetric effects in the US and in the UK. The conclusions of this paper may help in assessing the psychological consequences of COVID-19 lockdowns, beyond the negative economic and labour market consequences.