Classifying
Household Production Activities
Gretchen Donehower
Day 1, Session 2, NTA Time Use and Gender Workshop
Monday, May 21, 2012
Institute for Labor, Science and Social Affairs (ILSSA)
Hanoi, Vietnam
Outline
1. General principles of identifying household
productive activities
2. Groups of NTTA activities
3. Time Use Survey Activity Classification
4. Examples
5. Multiple activities at one time
6. US Example Stata Code
General Principles of Identifying
Household Productive Activities
• Not already included in national accounts
– So market production is NOT included
– Unpaid family labor that generates market income is not
included, even if the person who did the work did not get
paid
• Satisfies third party criterion
– You could pay someone else to do it for you
– Leisure, education, and many self-care activities do NOT
satisfy this criterion
• It still counts if the activity is pleasurable, as long as it
satisfies the third party criterion
• Another way to think about it: if I did not do this
myself, would I have to pay someone else to do it for
me?
Time Use Survey Activity Classification
• Major activity groups, sub-divided into lower
level groups and then final classification
• Sometimes major activity groups will be
completely household production, completely
market production, or completely nonproductive; or they may be a mixture
• Need to look carefully at the codes and activities
• See if anyone has done similar research using this
survey; what activities did they choose?
Groups of NTA Activities
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Cleaning
Laundry (includes sewing and clothing repair)
Cooking (food and drink preparation)
Household maintenance and repair
Lawn and garden care
Household management (incl. finances, scheduling, coordinating, and
related telephone calls)
7. Pet care (not veterinary care)
8. Purchasing goods and services
9. Childcare **
10. Eldercare and care outside the home (includes volunteering) **
11. Travel (related to care activities and purchasing goods and services)
DOES THIS SEEM REASONABLE? HAVE I FORGOTTEN ANYTHING?
WOULD A DIFFERENT SET OF ACTIVITIES MAKE MORE SENSE FOR
YOUR COUNTRIES?
** Will need to be divided into variables for care in hh versus outside hh
Example: UN Classification
• International Classification of Activities for Time Use
Statistics (ICATUS) is used in many surveys:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Personal care
Employment for establishments
Primary production activities not for establishments
Services for income and other production of goods not for
establishments
5. Household maintenance, management and shopping for
own household
6. Care for children, the sick, elderly and disabled for own
household
7. Community services and help to other households
8. Learning
9. Social, cultural and recreational activities
10. Mass media use
Example: US Survey
• American Time Use Survey (ATUS) scheme:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
Personal care
Household activities
Caring for and helping household members
Caring for and helping non-household members
Work and work-related activities
Education
Consumer purchases
Professional and personal care services (MIXED)
Household services
Government services and civic obligations (MIXED)
Eating and drinking
Socializing, relaxing and leisure
Sports, exercise and recreation
Religious and spiritual activities
Volunteer activities
Telephone calls (MIXED)
Traveling (MIXED)
Schemes for Coding Multiple Activities
• Use same criteria as for primary activity to
decide if a secondary activity is household
production or not
• How to include?
– If more than one productive activity at a time,
divide the time equally between the two
productive activities
– If one productive and one non-productive activity
is being done at a time, count the time completely
towards the productive activity
Example US Stata Code
• See handout
Lab Session
• Write code for your country that does the
same calculations as the example code for the
US
• This code identifies household production
activities in 11 groups and calculates age- and
sex-specific averages for time spent in those
activities