INCOME EFFECTS ON INTRA-HOUSEHOLD TIME ALLOCATION: REGRESSION DISCONTINUITY EVIDENCE

We examine the causal effect of income transfers on time allocations of household members into market work, domestic work and leisure, using primary data from rural South Africa. Female income decreases male leisure and increases male work, while men's income has opposite effects on women. Men's income is nurturing of women's time with salutary effects on both women's leisure and drudgery of domestic work. Adjustments in women's domestic work and leisure time remain missing links in the empirical literature on gender gaps. Our findings reveal significant gender-based asymmetries in income effects that are critical for development policy design. Copyright (C) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.