Gendered time poverty in three developing countries: An intra‐household analysis of children's time use

Abstract

Advances in data collection and methodology have contributed to the rise of time use as a topic of economic analysis, but much of the research focuses on adults in advanced economies. We document gendered differences in the intra‐household allocation of children's time in Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam based on the Young Lives Longitudinal Study. Using household fixed effects regressions, we document a leisure deficit for girls, highlighting a gender gap that has received less attention. We use the concept of time poverty to further investigate the nature of the leisure deficit, applying a relative time poverty line. A gender gap in the incidence of time poverty emerges at an early age and is spread across the wealth distribution. Our findings relate to the literature on time poverty of women in developing countries and have implications for promoting gender equality under Sustainable Development Goal target 5.4 on unpaid care and domestic work.