How Does the Level of Education Affect the Allocation of Women’s Time to Non-market Labour?

In this paper, the allocation of women’s time to housework and child-care is analysed using data from the 1997 Swiss Labour Force Survey (SLFS). The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect that the level of education has on the allocation of women’s time to non-market labour. It is shown that the usual negative-to-insignificant relationship between the level of education and the allocation of time to non-market labour encountered in empirical research cannot be generalised. More specifically, using a combination of parametric and semi-parametric estimators for censored regression models, it is shown that, in general, the level of education has a negative effect on the amount of time spent on housework and a positive effect on the amount of time spent on child-care. This paper also compares the determinants of the allocation of time to housework and child-care of women from the Latin part of Switzerland (Frenchand Italian-speaking Swiss) with those of women from the Germanic part of Switzerland. Such a cross-cultural analysis reveals that a few marked behavioural differences between these two cultures exist. JEL Classification: D13, J13, J22