Household production time and inequality in material living standards in the U.S., 1965–2018

Leila Gautham & NANCY FOLBRE

Journal of Public Economics2026https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2026.105582article
AJG 3ABDC A*
Weight
0.37

Abstract

We study how unpaid household production shapes trends in inequality in material living standards in the U.S. in the last five decades. We construct extended income and consumption measures that add the imputed value of household production to standard market concepts. Extended income and consumption are consistently more equal than their market counterparts. The imputed value of time devoted to household production has fallen considerably, with proportionately larger impacts on money-poor households. Inequality in extended measures has therefore risen more than for market income and consumption. In other words, the degree to which household production buffers inequality in market resources has fallen over time. This analysis applies a lower-bound replacement cost value to hours of time reported in household production and is robust to the use of different valuation and equivalence scales.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2026.105582

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@article{leila2026,
  title        = {{Household production time and inequality in material living standards in the U.S., 1965–2018}},
  author       = {Leila Gautham & NANCY FOLBRE},
  journal      = {Journal of Public Economics},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2026.105582},
}

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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