Giménez-Nadal José Ignacio, Molina José Alberto, Velilla Jorge
Department of Economic Analysis, University of Zaragoza, IEDIS, C/ Gran Vía 2, 50005 Zaragoza, Spain.
GLO, Global Labor Organization, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
J Happiness Stud. 2023;24(2):529-562. doi: 10.1007/s10902-022-00574-7. Epub 2022 Dec 7.
The COVID-19 pandemic has confined millions in their homes, an unprecedented opportunity to spend more time together with family members. This paper explores subjective well-being in the uses of time for US and UK workers, differentiating between solo activities and activities done with family members, at home and outside the home. Using American and British time use surveys, we compute the instant utility associated with paid work, unpaid work, leisure, and childcare activities. OLS regressions on both men and women show that workers prefer joint leisure to solo leisure, and that significant differences exist for solo and joint market work and housework, between the sexes. Despite that, the effect magnitudes are relatively low. Furthermore, we simulate a strict lockdown situation by replacing where and with whom worker episodes would be, based on mid-2020 strict confinements. Results suggest diverging effects, since more time with the spouse/partner and children, and less time with others, seems to increase the experienced wellbeing of women, compared to that of men. The simulation exercise also reveals asymmetric effects in the US and in the UK. The conclusions of this paper may help in assessing the psychological consequences of COVID-19 lockdowns, beyond the negative economic and labour market consequences.
新冠疫情使数百万人困于家中，这是一个与家人共度更多时光的前所未有的机会。本文探讨了美国和英国劳动者在时间利用方面的主观幸福感，区分了独自进行的活动以及与家人一起在家内外进行的活动。利用美国和英国的时间使用调查，我们计算了与有偿工作、无偿工作、休闲和育儿活动相关的即时效用。对男性和女性的OLS回归表明，劳动者更喜欢与家人一起休闲而非独自休闲，并且在独自和与家人一起进行的市场工作及家务方面，两性之间存在显著差异。尽管如此，影响程度相对较低。此外，我们根据2020年年中严格的封锁措施，通过替换劳动者活动的地点和对象，模拟了一种严格的封锁情况。结果显示出不同的影响，因为与配偶/伴侣和孩子相处时间增加，与他人相处时间减少，相比男性，女性的幸福感似乎有所提升。模拟实验还揭示了美国和英国的不对称影响。本文的结论可能有助于评估新冠疫情封锁措施除负面经济和劳动力市场影响之外的心理后果。
