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Household production reduces measured inequality, but less over time

A family of three people and a small dog sit together on a green sectional sofa in a bright, modern living room while a robotic vacuum cleaner operates on the floor beneath them.
Research area:Economics, Econometrics and FinanceIncome, Poverty, and InequalityGender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

What the study found

Adding the imputed value of unpaid household production, meaning the estimated value of time spent on household tasks, makes income and consumption measures of material living standards more equal. The study also finds that the value of this household production has fallen over time, with larger proportional effects for money-poor households.

Why the authors say this matters

The authors conclude that household production has played a smaller role over time in buffering inequality in market resources. The study suggests that trends in inequality look different when unpaid household work is included in measures of living standards.

What the researchers tested

The researchers studied U.S. inequality in material living standards from 1965 to 2018. They built extended income and consumption measures by adding the imputed value of household production to standard market income and consumption measures, using a lower-bound replacement cost value for reported hours of household production.

What worked and what didn't

Extended income and extended consumption were consistently more equal than their market counterparts. However, inequality in the extended measures rose more than inequality in market income and consumption because the imputed value of household production declined, especially for households with lower money income.

What to keep in mind

The analysis uses a lower-bound replacement cost for household production hours. The abstract says the results are robust to different valuation and equivalence scales, but it does not describe other limitations in the available summary.

Key points

  • Extended income and consumption measures were consistently more equal than market-based measures.
  • The imputed value of household production fell considerably over time.
  • The decline in household production value had proportionately larger effects for money-poor households.
  • Inequality in the extended measures rose more than inequality in market income and consumption.
  • The authors say household production’s buffering effect on inequality in market resources weakened over time.

Disclosure

Research title:
Household production reduces measured inequality, but less over time
Authors:
Leila Gautham, NANCY FOLBRE
Institutions:
University of Leeds, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Publication date:
2026-02-03
DOI:
10.1016/j.jpubeco.2026.105582
OpenAlex record:
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AI provenance: This post was generated by OpenAI. The original authors did not write or review this post.

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