Demand or supply for schooling in rural India?

Sripad Motiram

Is the poor human capital investment of rural Indian families primarily a supply side or a demand side issue? Can time use data help analyze some of the hidden dimensions of development? We examine school attendance and total human capital investment time (time in school plus travel time plus in-home instructional time) using the Indian Time Use Survey of 1998-1999 and the 7th All India School Education Survey (AISES). Probit and sample selection bias regression estimates indicate that the influence of supply side factors (school quality and availability) is large relative to the impact of household characteristics (e.g. low income). We discuss the policy implications and illustrate the advantages of time use data in analysis of development.

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The time cost of access to food – Distance to the grocery store as measured in minutes

Karen S. Hamrick, David Hopkins

Time use diaries are rich in information, including where and when respondents travel from place to place. Travel estimates, as well as variety of contextual information on travel, can be generated from time use data. However, using the data for travel analysis is difficult and involves detailed understanding of how the data are coded. Presented here is a methodology for estimating travel time using the time diaries from the 2003-07 American Time Use Survey. As an illustration of the methodology, the authors estimate travel time to grocery shopping. These estimates are of interest as a policy concern in the United States is whether or not some poor areas of the country have access to supermarkets that offer the variety of foods needed for a healthy diet, and in particular, fresh fruits and vegetables. Neighborhoods that have limited access to supermarkets are referred to as “food deserts.” The authors found that individuals living in low-income areas with limited supermarket access spend significantly more time (an average of 19.5 minutes) traveling to grocery shopping than the national average (15 minutes), and in addition, they grocery shop less frequently, and they are more likely to be accompanied by children during travel to grocery shopping.

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A conceptual typology of multitasking behavior and polychronicity preferences

Giovanni Circella, Patricia L. Mokhtarian, Laura K. Poff

This paper introduces a conceptual framework for the systematic analysis of multitasking behavior, and the corresponding degree of preference for doing multiple activities simultaneously (polychronicity). A typology of multitasking is developed along the two dimensions “share of time” and “share of resources” allocated to each task. We discuss the heterogeneous nature of resources and the importance of the time scale and time granularity used for measuring multitasking, among other considerations. An illustrative library of examples of multitasking situations is provided. Finally, we discuss the measurement of polychronicity as a time- and context-dependent vector, rather than as a single score.

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Paid and unpaid work in Denmark – Towards gender equity

Bent Jensen

Since the 1960s women in most countries have increased the time they spend in the labour market, while little change has been seen in their time spent on unpaid household work. Men, however, have decreased their labour market participation and increased their time used on unpaid household work. This trend also holds true for Denmark, albeit reduced by standardization for the demographic distribution. The most robust result is a continued convergence in women and men's time use. When making a linear projection of the trends in women and men's time use, we have to go to the year 2033 before Danish women and men spend an equal amount of time in paid employment. However, for household work, gender equality will arrive as early as 2023.

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Human capital investments in children – A comparative analysis of the role of parentchild shared time in selected countries

Eva Österbacka, Joachim Merz, Cathleen D. Zick

In this paper, we test the hypothesis of parent-child time as a form of human capital investment in children using a propensity score treatment effects approach that accounts for the possible endogenous nature of time use and human capital investment. We broaden the human capital investment notion and focus on shared time in eating, housework, leisure, and TV/video time. Furthermore, we investigate the extent to which the levels and composition of parent-child time varies across three countries: Finland, Germany, and the United States (as social democratic, conservative and liberal welfare regime). Our results reveal some cross-national differences in human capital investment and they provide mixed support for the hypothesis that non-care related parent-child time is human capital enriching. But our results also provide similarities across countries, indicating that family core functions may be common irrespective of welfare regimes

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time-pieces

New developments in time technology – projects, data, computing and services

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