[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/npf/wpaper/22-372.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Covid19 and Unpaid Care Economy: Evidence on Fiscal Policy and Time Allocation in India

Author

Listed:
  • Chakraborty, Lekha

    (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy)

Abstract
Against the backdrop of covid19 pandemic, measuring unpaid care economy is significant to capture the roles and well-being of men and women. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down the global economy, however there is an increasing recognition that the care economy was "working harder than ever". The economists and policymakers are increasingly getting aware of the consistently ignored care economy in their models and macroeconomic policies. This paper analyses the unpaid care sector in India using the recent Time Use Survey 2020 and explores the fiscal policy measures to address the sector. In India, the Time Use Survey was conducted in 1999-2000, for only selected six States of India. After twenty years, Government of India published the second macro-level Time Use Survey for all the States and Union Territories in India. The chronology of 1440 minutes a day coded into economic activities under Systems of National Accounts (SNA) and Non-SNA in the Time Use Survey 2020 provides evidence for time poverty and time stress, especially for women in rural and urban India. Time poverty affects the income poverty. The allocation and efficiency of nonmarket working time in the unpaid care economy is important for economic growth along with market working time. As the macro policies are constructed only on the basis of market economy, the nonmarket work in the unpaid care economy continues to remain statistically invisible. The link between fiscal policy and time allocation suggest that worsening public infrastructure investment affects the market work with evident gender differentials. The fiscal policies designed to redress income poverty can be partial if we do not take into account the aspects of time poverty. In the post-pandemic fiscal strategy, strengthening the "Employer of Last Resort" (ELR) policy is crucial for tackling the plummeting employment and the humanitarian crisis. However, unless a comprehensive care economy policy is integrated in the Public Financial Management (PFM) tool like gender budgeting to tackle the time poverty in India, the efficacy of such ELR policies can be partial, due to significant gender differentials in accessing the ELR fiscal space.

Suggested Citation

  • Chakraborty, Lekha, 2022. "Covid19 and Unpaid Care Economy: Evidence on Fiscal Policy and Time Allocation in India," Working Papers 22/372, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:npf:wpaper:22/372
    Note: Working Paper 372, 2022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://nipfp.org.in/media/medialibrary/2022/02/WP_372_2022.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sarah Gammage, 2010. "Time Pressed and Time Poor: Unpaid Household Work in Guatemala," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 79-112.
    2. İpek İlkkaracan & Emel Memiş, 2021. "Transformations in the Gender Gaps in Paid and Unpaid Work During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Findings from Turkey," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 288-309, April.
    3. Gronau, Reuben, 1977. "Leisure, Home Production, and Work-The Theory of the Allocation of Time Revisited," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(6), pages 1099-1123, December.
    4. Günseli Berik & Ebru Kongar, 2013. "Time Allocation of Married Mothers and Fathers in Hard Times: The 2007--09 US Recession," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 208-237, July.
    5. Liangshu Qi & Xiao-yuan Dong, 2018. "Gender, Low-Paid Status, and Time Poverty in Urban China," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2), pages 171-193, April.
    6. Papa A. Seck & Jessamyn O. Encarnacion & Cecilia Tinonin & Sara Duerto-Valero, 2021. "Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 in Asia and the Pacific: Early Evidence on Deepening Socioeconomic Inequalities in Paid and Unpaid Work," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1-2), pages 117-132, April.
    7. Maria S. Floro & Hitomi Komatsu, 2011. "Labor Force Participation, Gender and Work in South Africa: What Can Time Use Data Reveal?," Working Papers 2011-02, American University, Department of Economics.
    8. Nadir Habibi & Cindy Huang & Diego Miranda & Victoria Murillo & Gustav Ranis & Mainak Sarkar & Frances Stewart, 2003. "Decentralization and Human Development in Argentina," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(1), pages 73-101.
    9. Ashwini Deshpande, 2020. "The Covid-19 Pandemic and Lockdown: First Effects on Gender Gaps in Employment and Domestic Work in India," Working Papers 30, Ashoka University, Department of Economics, revised 02 Jun 2020.
    10. Verónica Amarante & Cecilia Rossel, 2018. "Unfolding Patterns of Unpaid Household Work in Latin America," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(1), pages 1-34, January.
    11. Elena Bardasi & Quentin Wodon, 2010. "Working Long Hours and Having No Choice: Time Poverty in Guinea," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 45-78.
    12. Deshpande, Ashwini, 2020. "The Covid-19 Pandemic and Lockdown: First Order Effects on Gender Gaps in Employment and Domestic Time Use in India," GLO Discussion Paper Series 607, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    13. Lekha Chakraborty, 2014. "Integrating Time in Public Policy: Empirical Description of Gender-specific Outcomes and Budgeting," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_785, Levy Economics Institute.
    14. Diksha Arora & Codrina Rada, 2017. "A Gendered Model of the Peasant Household: Time poverty and Farm Production in Rural Mozambique," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 93-119, April.
    15. Neetu A. John, 2020. "Exploring the Linkages Between Women’s Paid and Unpaid Work and Their Experiences of Intimate Partner and Non-Partner Violence in Nepal," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(4), pages 89-113, October.
    16. Maria Floro & Anant Pichetpongsa, 2010. "Gender, Work Intensity, and Well-Being of Thai Home-Based Workers," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 5-44.
    17. Greg Seymour & Hazel Malapit & Agnes Quisumbing, 2020. "Measuring Time Use in Developing Country Agriculture: Evidence from Bangladesh and Uganda," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(3), pages 169-199, July.
    18. Lekha S. Chakraborty, 2008. "Deficient Public Infrastructure and Private Costs: Evidence from a Time-Use Survey for the Water Sector in India," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_536, Levy Economics Institute.
    19. Sripad Motiram & Lars Osberg, 2010. "Gender Inequalities in Tasks and Instruction Opportunities within Indian Families," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 141-167.
    20. Choudhury, Mita & Datta, Pritam, 2022. "The "Scissors Effect" of COVID 19 Pandemic on State Finances: Emerging Evidence on Expenditures," Working Papers 22/369, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    21. Killian Mullan, 2010. "Valuing Parental Childcare in the United Kingdom," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 113-139.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nayak, Dinesh Kumar & Hazarika, Bhabesh, 2022. "Linkage between Income and Government Expenditure at Indian Sub-nationals: A Second Generation Panel Co-integration Techniques," Working Papers 22/374, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    2. Datta, Pritam & Dubey, Jay Dev & Choudhury, Mita, 2022. "Progressivity of Public Spending on Health care at the Sub-state Level in India: An Empirical Investigation in Tamil Nadu and Bihar," Working Papers 22/375, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chakraborty, Lekha S, 2022. "Covid19 and Fiscal Policy for Unpaid Care Economy," MPRA Paper 111925, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Fiona Carmichael & Christian K. Darko & Patricia Daley & Joanne Duberley & Marco Ercolani & Tim Schwanen & Daniel Wheatley, 2024. "Time poverty and gender in urban sub‐Saharan Africa: Long working days and long commutes in Ghana's Greater Accra Metropolitan Area," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 343-364, January.
    3. Meurs, Mieke & Slavchevska, Vanya, 2014. "Doing it all: Women’s employment and reproductive work in Tajikistan," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 786-803.
    4. Sara Stevano & Suneetha Kadiyala & Deborah Johnston & Hazel Malapit & Elizabeth Hull & Sofia Kalamatianou, 2019. "Time-Use Analytics: An Improved Way of Understanding Gendered Agriculture-Nutrition Pathways," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 1-22, July.
    5. Ishaan Bansal & Kanika Mahajan, 2021. "COVID-19, Income Shocks and Female Employment," Working Papers 69, Ashoka University, Department of Economics.
    6. Aashima Sinha & Ashish Kumar Sedai, 2024. "Why Care for the Care Economy: Empirical Evidence from Nepal," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 50(3), pages 337-373, June.
    7. Diksha Arora, 2014. "Gender Differences in Time Poverty in Rural Mozambique," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2014_05, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    8. Biscaye,Pierre E. & Egger,Dennis Timo & Pape,Utz Johann, 2022. "Balancing Work and Childcare : Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9958, The World Bank.
    9. Sarah Eissler & Jessica Heckert & Emily Myers & Greg Seymour & Sheela Sinharoy & Kathryn Yount, 2022. "Measuring Women's Empowerment: Gender and Time‐use Agency in Benin, Malawi and Nigeria," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(5), pages 1010-1034, September.
    10. Daniela Campus & Gianna Giannelli, 2016. "Is the Allocation of Time Gender Sensitive to Food Price Changes? An Investigation of Hours of Work in Uganda," Working Papers - Economics wp2016_16.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    11. Nurgun Kul Parlak & Ayse Nur Ciftci, 2022. "Pandeminin Kayit Disi Istihdami Dislama Etkisi: Turkiye’de Formel-Enformel Emek Piyasalarindaki Ayrisma," Journal of Social Policy Conferences, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 0(82), pages 93-135, June.
    12. Khed, Vijayalaxmi D. & Krishna, Vijesh V., 2023. "Agency and time poverty: Linking decision-making powers and leisure time of male and female farmers of Central India," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 29(C).
    13. Alison Andrew & Sarah Cattan & Monica Costa Dias & Christine Farquharson & Lucy Kraftman & Sonya Krutikova & Angus Phimister & Almudena Sevilla, 2022. "The gendered division of paid and domestic work under lockdown," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 325-340, December.
    14. Giménez-Nadal, José Ignacio & Molina, José Alberto & Velilla, Jorge, 2020. "Should we cheer together? Gender differences in instantaneous well-being during joint and solo activities: An application to COVID-19 lockdowns," GLO Discussion Paper Series 736, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    15. Martey, Edward & Etwire, Prince M. & Atinga, David & Yevu, Mawuli, 2021. "Household energy choice for cooking among the time and consumption poor in Ghana," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    16. Espino, Ilya & Hermeto, Ana & Luz, Luciana, 2020. "Gender differences in time allocation to paid and unpaid work: Evidence from Urban Guatemala, 2000-2014," MPRA Paper 106477, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Nazier, Hanan & Ezzat, Asmaa, 2022. "Gender differences and time allocation: A comparative analysis of Egypt and Tunisia," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 174-193.
    18. Madhulika Khanna & Milan Thomas, 2024. "Gendered time poverty in three developing countries: An intra‐household analysis of children's time use," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 316-342, January.
    19. Simona Jokubauskaitė & Alyssa Schneebaum, 2022. "Assessing the value of household work based on wages demanded on online platforms for substitutes," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 153-160, March.
    20. Chakraborty, Lekha S & Singh, Yadawendra, 2018. "Fiscal Policy, as the “Employer of Last Resort”: Impact of Direct fiscal transfer (MGNREGA) on Labour Force Participation Rates in India," MPRA Paper 85225, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:npf:wpaper:22/372. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: S.Siva Chidambaram (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nipfp.org.in .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.