Determinants of the number of hours doing housework of the wives in tow-earner households in urban HCM City

THE UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL STUDIES HO CHI MINH CITY THE HAGUE VIETNAM THE NETHERLANDS THE VIETNAM-NETHERLANDS PROJECT FORMA PROGRAM - / IN DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS DETERMINANTS OF THE NUMBER OF HOURS DOING HOUSEWORK OF THE WIVES IN TWO-EARNER HOUSEHOLDS IN URBAN HO CHI MINH CITY BY LUONG THI CHUNG THUY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ECONOMICS OF DEVELOPMENT HO CHI MINH CITY, 2003 CERTIFICATION I certify that the substance of this dissertation has not already been submitted for any degree and is not being currently submitted for any other degree I certify that to the best of my knowledge, any help received in preparing this dissertation, and all sources used, have been acknowledged in this dissertation Luong Thi Chung Thuy Date: September 81h, 2003 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The thesis in done as the fulfillment of the MA course of Vietnamese - Dutch Project for Development Economics Thanks to the Netherlands for her Aid and Scholarship during the course I would like to thank Dr Gabrielle Berman, Dr Youdi Schipper and Dr Karel Jansen for their worthy teaching, suggestion and comments on my very first step of the thesis I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Dr Ho Ngoc Phuong, for his supervising and guidance during my writing I am deeply indebted to MA Ta Thi Bich Thuy for her special support and all materials she gave Many thanks are also given to Dr Nguyen Van Ngai for his suggestion on my thesis econometric model, Dr Nguyen Thi Hoa, Dr Tran Kim Dung for their helps The thesis would not have been completed without their support and encouragement Many thanks are also given to all project teachers and staffs, especially Mr Tran Vo Hong Son, Ms Tran Thi Ben, Ms Do Thi Anh Nguyet and Ms Dang Kim Chi for their helping during the course I would like to thank Ms Dang Le Hoa for her checking of my writing in grammar, vocabulary as well as her comments I also thank Ms Nguyen Phuong Chi, Ms Ha Dung, Ms Pham Le Hoa, Ms Doan Thi Thu Huong, Mr Luu Tien Thuan, Mr Truong Khoa (RAND), and Ms Nguyen Thanh Binh (DOLISA), who gave me many supports in doing the thesis My sincere gratitude goes to all of my friends for their helping and discussions I am also grateful to all people who helped me conducting the survey, especially Ms Phan Hong Ha, Mr Nguyen Thanh Tung, other staffs and interviewers at ACORN Company I also thank all of respondents who gave me valuable information Finally, I am thankful to my parents, my aunt·and my brother for their special supports I cannot anything without their supports and encouragement 11 ABSTRACT The study tries to examine the determinants of the number of hours doing housework of the wives in two-earner households in urban Ho C~i Minh City The study based on the theories of household behaviour and time allocation to test the effects of women and households' characteristics on the number of housework hours of the wives The Ordinary Least Square regression and descriptive method are employed in the research The findings are that the higher their earnings, the less hours of housework they do; the more young children (aged less than 15) they have, the more hours of housework they Moreover, the number of housework hours of the wives has negative relation with the number of other adult female in households Furthermore, the involvement in housework of husbands proves to be the significant determinant of the number of hours doing housework of the wives However, the wives' age, the educational level of both spouses, expenditure per capita, appliance of modern equipment in home production, and number of other adult male in households have no significant relationship to the number of hours doing housework of the wives l11 TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATION : ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ! 11 ABSTRACT 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS IV ABBREVIATIONS VII LIST OF TABLES VIII LIST OF FIGURES IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT : l 1.2 SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH 1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1.4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION 1.5 THESIS' STRUCl"URE , ,,,,,,,,,,,,., ,,,,,,,,,, CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW IV 2.1 DEFINITIONS 2.1.1 Household 2.1.2 Time allocation ' THE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.2 2.2.1 The economics of household behaviour 2.2.2 A work-leisure model of household 10 2.2.3 The theory of time allocation 12 2.2.4 Division of work within household ' 15 2.2.5 Human capital theory 16 2.3 THE EMPIRICAL REVIEWS 17 2.3.1 In developed nations 17 2.3.2 In developing countries 19 CHAPTER 3: MODEL SPECIFICATION 26 3.1 THE VARIABLE JUSTIFICATION 26 3.2 THE MODEL SPECIFICATION , 30 3.3 THE SAMPLE SIZE 30 3.4 SAMPLING AND DATA COLLECTION METHOD 31 CHAPTER 4: DETERMINANTS OF NUMBER OF HOUSEWORK HOURS OF MARRIED WORKING WOMEN IN TWO-EARNER HOUSEHOLDS IN HO CHI MINH CITY 4.1 33 A GLANCE AT HO CHI MINH CITY 33 v I 4.1.1 General Socio Economic 33 4.1.2 Profile of women ofHo Chi Minh City 34 4.2 DETERMINANTS OF NUMBER OF HOUSEWORK HOURS 38 4.2.1 Descriptive analysis 39 4.2.1.1 Numerical summaries of variables 39 4.2.1.2 Pattern of time allocation 39 4.2.1.3 Bivariate analysis 41 4.2.2 Quantitative analysis using econometric model 47 4.2.2.1 Regression results: 47 4.2.2.2 Diagnostic testing for regression 49 4.2.2.3 Interpretation of coefficients and regression results 50 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS 56 5.1 BRIEF SUMMARIES OF THE THESIS FINDINGS 56 5.2 POLICY IMPLICATIONS 57 APPENDICES 59 BIBLIOGRAPHY 71 vi ABBREVIATIONS DO LISA Department of Labour, Invalid, and Social Affair HCM Ho Chi Minh City GSO General Statistical Office GDP Gross Domestic Products MOLISA Ministry of Labour, Invalid, and Social Affair OLS Ordinary Least Squares UNDP United Nations Development Programme VLSS Vienam Living Standard Survey vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Summary of selected empirical studies of time allocation of housework 24 Table 3.1 Definitions ofvariables 29 Table 4.1 Percentage of households getting amenities of home life 34 Table 4.2 Female labour divided by age groups Table 4.3 The active female aged from 15 divided by educationallevel 36 Table4.4 Sumtnary of variables 39 Table 4.5 Pattern of weekly time allocation of spouses 40 Table 4.6 Weekly housework hours of the spouses .40 Table 4.7 The number of hours of housework by wives' educationallevel 43 Table 4.8 The time used for housework according to the wives' age 43 Table 4.9 Pattern of housework homs by household size 44 Table 4.10 The effect of the presence of children aged 0-15 in the housework hours .45 Table 4.11 The housework activities with respect to the domestic help .46 Table 4.12 The OLS regression results 49 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 The choice between Consumption and Leisure 11 Figure 4.1 The unemployment rate in urban Ho Chi Minh City in 1996-2002 37 Figure 4.2 The relationship between housework hours and wives' earJlings 42 Figure 4.3 The relationship between housework hours and market hours of wives 42 Figure 4.4 The relationship between housework hours and wives' age .44 Figure 4.5 The relationship between number of housework hours of wives and number of housework hours of husbands IX B LIFESTYLE ORIENTATION Q2 With the scale from to 5, is completely disagreement and is completely agreement Please mark the following statements due to your point of view Sta t emen t With the paid job, I feel comfortable and happy I feel more self-confident I am free from the housework I am not dependent on my husband's finance My life is more vivid and happy My knowledge increases With the housework I love the housework It takes me too much time I am happy to the housework for my family My husband shares the housework My husband considers housework is women's responsibilities Due to my husband's share of housework, I can join the outside activities I have little time for my leisure and resting Sca Ieo f agreemen t 1 1 1 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 5 5 5 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 5 I 1 I 2 2 Q3 Do you think that in low-income household the wife will devote more time for the housework? Yes No 0 Why yes? _ Why no? Q4 What will you to facilitate your housework if your household has higher income? Hire help-maid Buy more home-appliance devices Other (specify) Q5a Is there anyone helping you in the housework everyday? Yes 0-+ Q5b No -+ Section C Q5b Who they are? My husband My mother/mother in-law My daughter The help-maid Other (specify): _ _ _ 62 Q6a How much time on average your husband spend for housework per day? - - - - hours Q6b Which activities of housework, your husband often shares with you? Cooking Washing after meal Washing/ironing/drying House cleaningO Childcare Other (specify): _ ' C EDUCATIONAL LEVEL, EMPLOYMENT AND OTHER INFORMATION: Q7a What is your highest educational attainment? Specify _ _ _ _ _ Primary school Finished lower high school Finished upper high school College/Vocational school University graduate D Post-graduate D Q7b What is your current paid job? (Specify) Q7c How long have your worked at the current job? (specify) _months years Q7d How long have your worked since your first job? (specify) months years Q7e How much you earned from your paid job every month? (specify)_ _ _ _ _ _ _ dongs Q8a What is your highest educational attainment? Specify _ _ _ _ _ Primary school Finished lower high school Finished upper high school College/Vocational school University graduate Post-graduate D D D D D Q8b What is your current paid job? ( S p e c i f y ) - - - - - - - - - - - - Q8c How long have your worked at the curren.tjob? (specify) months _years Q8d How long have your worked since your first job? (specify) _months _years Q8e How much you earned from your paid job every month? 63 (specify)_ _ _ _ _ _ dongs Q9 On average, how much is your household's monthly expenditure for daily use? (specify) _ _ _ _ _ _dongs QI Among the following durables, which items owned by your household? Washing machines Computer Electric rice cooker Radio/Cassette player Microwave stove TV Vacuum cleaner Motorcycles D D D D D D D D Gas cooker Stereo equipments Electronic cooker Video recorder Refrigerator Camera Air conditioner Others (specify) Qll How much is your house's used area? D D D D D D D m2 QI2 What is your household main source of water for daily use? Piped water D In-house drill well/dug well D Others (specify): D 64 Appendix B: The initial regression The OLS estimation results ss Source I df Number of obs MS -+ F( 15, 105 '21.74 89) Model 3043.2915 15 202.8861 Prob > F 0.0000 Residual 830.606874 89 9.3326615 R-squared 0.7856 -+ -~ Total hwwife I 3873.89837 Coef 104 37.2490228 t Std Err P>ltl Adj R-squared 0.7495 Root MSE 3.0549 [95% Conf Interval] -+ -childO 6.410104 8358358 67 0.000 4.749316 8.070892 child6- 10 4.070229 7701565 5.28 0.000 2.539945 5.600514 childll 15 - 8790303 677867 1.30 0.198 -.467877 2.225938 hwhusb -.5335892 1631381 -3.27 0.002 -.8577411 -.2094373 mktwife -.1928829 0840601 -2.29 0.024 -.3599086 -.0258572 mkthusb 0648371 0484311 34 0.184 -.0313943 1610686 age_wife 0139341 0572181 0.24 0.808 -.0997571 1276253 female -.6442969 4292641 -1.50 0.137 -1.497236 2086417 male -.3469585 4567125 -0.76 0.449 -1.254436 5605194 eduw3 -.8523337 8748644 -0.97 ,333 -2.590671 8860033 eduh3 1.05824 1.038602 1.02 0.311 -1.005441 3.12192 expcap 0001459 0010799 0.14 0.893 -.0019999 0022917 washingmac-e - 95.05961 7963311 -1.19 0.236 -2.532889 6316968 wagewife -.0015697 0004679 -3.35 0.001 -.0024994 -.00064 wagehusb 0005961 0003558 68 0.097 - 0001108 0013031 5.007144 43 0.000 17.26148 37.15966 - cons 27.21057 -Ramsey RESET test using powers of the fitted values of hwwife Ho: model has no omitted variables F(3, 86) 95 0.1277 Prob > F Cook-Weisberg test for heteroskedasticity using fitted values of hwwife Ho: Constant variance chi2 (1) 84 Prob > chi2 0.1754 65 Variance influence factor test Variable VIF Variable I 1/VIF -+ VIF 1/VIF -+ wagewife 2.24 0.446410 hwhusb 64 0.608428 childO 2.15 0.464457 female 62 0.61'5791 eduh3 2.01 0.497503 male 52 0.656139 ~ wagehusb 94 0.516711 child11 15 49 0.671468 mktwife 1.86 0.537914 child6- 10 43 0.698268 age_wife 81 0.551626 mkthusb 1.29 0.776212 eduw3 79 558110 expcap 1.24 0.804962 washingmac-e 76 0.569374 - -+ -Mean VIF I 72 The coefficent of correlation between pairs of explanatory variables child0_5 child-10 child-15 hwhusb mktwife mkthusb age_wife -+ -~ - childO 1.0000 child6- 10 -0.1833 1.0000 childll 15 -0.4133 -0.0204 1.0000 hwhusb -0.3009 -0.2384 0.1633 1.0000 mktwife -0.2856 -0.3016 0.2126 0.4208 1.0000 mkthusb 0.0340 0.1858 -0.0029 -0.1424 0.1010 1.0000 age_wife -0.5699 -0.0041 0.3815 0.1388 0.1027 0171 1.0000 female -0.1753 -0.0201 0.1921 0.1862 0.3001 -0.1156 0.1301 male -0.0462 0.0425 -0.1594 0.1628 0.0754 -0.1125 0217 eduw3 -0.0076 -0.0781 0.0174 0.1691 -0.0464 -0.1921 -0.1154 eduh3 0.2853 -0.0573 -0.0565 -0.1534 -0.1604 -0.0480 -0.2977 expcap ~0.0570 0.0193 0.0759 0.0438 0.0247 0.1024 -0.1016 washingmac-e -0.0908 0.0525 0.1437 0.1975 -0.1563 -0.0771 0.1077 wagewife 0.0065 -0.0689 -0.0623 0.1134 0.0363 -0.1621 -0.0765 wagehusb 0.1111 0.0157 -0.1061 -0.0064 -0.1242 0.0460 -0.1752 female male eduw3 eduh3 expcap washin-e wagewife -+ female 1.0000 male 4152 1.0000 eduw3 -0.0995 0.0197 1.0000 eduh3 -0.1841 0.0719 0.5389 1.0000 expcap -0.2653 -0.1953 0.2136 0.1787 washingmac-e 0.0076 -0.0023 0.4384 0.3472 0.0932 1.0000 wagewife -0.0519 0.1275 0.3771 0.3581 0.1835 0.4303 1.0000 wagehusb -0.0823 -0.0452 0.2631 0.2910 0.2143 0.3408 0.6285 1.0000 66 Appendix C The OLS regression results of the number of hours of housework The regression results ss Source I df MS Number of obs -+ -Model 3039.41258 14 217.100899 Residual 834.485793 90 9.27206437 F( 14, Prob > F -+ -Total I hwwife I 3873.89837 Coef 104 37.2490228 Std Err 105 90) t3.41 0.0000 R-squared 0.7846 Adj R-squared 511 Root MSE t P>ltl 3.045 [95% Conf Interval) -+ ~ -~ - childO 6.370873 8332447 7.65 0.000 4.715487 8.026259 child6 10 3.988827 7679531 5.19 0.000 2.463154 5.5145 childll 15 1.124817 6706386 68 097 -.2075236 2.457157 hwhusb -.5128067 1623567 -3.16 0.002 -.8353566 -.1902568 mktwife -.1955321 0834547 -2.34 0.021 -.3613295 -.0297348 mkthusb 0668903 0479018 1.40 0.166 -.0282749 1620556 age_wife 0158398 0567349 0.28 0.781 -.0968739 1285535 female -.6868616 4288298 -1.60 0.113 -1.538807 1650836 male -.3079732 4570084 -0.67 0.502 -1.2159 5999537 eduw3 -.9739807 869666 -1.12 266 -2:701724 7537625 eduh3 7704113 1.028031 0.75 0.456 -1.271952 2.812775 expcap -.0000564 0010615 -0.05 0.958 - 0021652 0020524 washingmac-e -1.424695 7461433 -1.91 0.059 -2.907039 057649 wageratio -10.11127 3.044822 -3.32 0.001 -16.16034 -4.062201 cons 30.70758 5.016655 6.12 0.000 20.74112 40.67404 Ramsey RESET test using powers of the fitted values of hwwife Ho: model has no omitted variables F (3, 87) 70 0.1732 Prob > F Cook-Weisberg test for heteroskedasticity using fitted values of hwwife Ho: Constant variance chi2(1) 2.85 Prob > chi2 · 0.0913 Skewness/Kurtosis tests for Normality - joint -Variable I Pr(Skewness) Pr(Kurtosis) adj chi2(2) Prob>chi2 -+ · -u I 0.998 0.860 0.03 0.9845 67 VARIANCE INFLATION FACTORS TEST Variable VIF 1/VIF Variable VIF 1/VIF childO 2.15 0.464316 male 54 0.651035 eduh3 98 0.504490 child11 - 15 47 68'1566 mktwife 84 0.542203 child6 10 43 0.697721 age_wife 79 0.557420 mkthusb 27 0.788307 eduw3 78 0.561135 wage 1.24 0.805211 hwhusb 64 0.610310 expcap 21 0.827818 female 63 0.613032 washingmac-e 55 0.644335 -+ -Mean VIF I 61 Source: The survey data Coefficients of correlation of explanatory variables childO child-10 child-15 hwhusb mktwife mkthusb age_wife -+ childO 1.0000 child6 - 10 -0.1833 1.0000 childll - 15 -0.4133 -0.0204 1.0000 hwhusb -0.3009 -0.2384 0.1633 1.0000 mktwife -0.2856 -0.3016 0.2126 0.4208 1.0000 mkthusb 0.0340 0.1858 -0.0029 -0.1424 0.1010 1.0000 age_wife -0.5699 -0.0041 0.3815 0.1388 0.1027 0.0171 female -0.1753 -0.0201 0.1921 0.1862 0.3001 -0.1156 0.1301 male -0.0462 0.0425 -0.1594 0.1628 0.0754 -0.1125 0.0217 eduw3 -0.0076 -0.0781 0.0174 0.1691 -0.0464 -0.1921 -0.1154 eduh3 0.2853 -0.0573 -0.0565 -0.1534 -0.1604 -0.0480 -0.2977 expcap -0.0570 0.0193 0.0759 0.0438 0.0247 0.1024 -0.1016 washingmac-e -0.0908 0.0525 0.1437 0.1975 -0.1563 -0.0771 0.1077 wage -0.1424 -0.1420 0.0790 0.1924 0.2219 -0.2251 0.0969 female male eduw3 eduh3 expcap washin-e wage 1.0000 -+ female 1.0000 male 4152 1.0000 eduw3 -0.0995 0.0197 1.0000 eduh3 -0.1841 0719 0.5389 1.0000 expcap -0.2653 -0.1953 0.2136 0.1787 1.0000 washingmac-e 0.0076 -0.0023 0.4384 34 72 0.0932 1.0000 wage 0.0288 0.2048 0.1463 0.0745 0.0228 0.1198 1.0000 68 •, ~ :;·:· :·· ,'• ·.,:: fA, , '· oo ''•• •I ''• ,,o ·"•'~' o• o, ·-:110: _, , · o '•'oo •': ,,.·., a • ~ •• '•o · • , ,· ;o,•" • ,o,,o • I I o\ • \ ' •' •a, 'I• · ·.· ,· "•' ,, ('-· : • • ;o, ! ,, •, :'· , • '• , •• ,:'' ~-· :,• I ,,, •'' o' • • •• ~·· • o' : .Z3 -a ;>., Q) = t:; ;:l ·c;; en "-l Q) .c