1. Families, Time and Well-Being in Canada
Peter Burton and Shelley Phipps
Department of Economics
Dalhousie University

2. Motivation
‘Time crunch’ of general public interest and studied by scholars outside economics (e.g., Duxbury and Higgins, 2009)
Economic theories of family (e.g., Becker, 1991) argue that both time and money are resources that can increase well-being
More attention to money as proxy for well-being (e.g., GDP, poverty and income inequality)

3. ‘Economics of Happiness’
Has also focused on association between income and well-being (e.g., Easterlin, 2001; Barrington-Leigh and Helliwell, 2009)
Less attention to ‘time’ though another major theme is that social interactions are key to well-being (e.g., Helliwell and Putnam, 2004)

4. Paper Overview
Document changes in participation in paid work for Canadian families with children ( )
Over-all, across the income distribution
Look at ‘time/money’ resource packages available
Study associations between parental time and parental well-being, given income
Look at mothers and fathers separately
Has inequality of well-being increased more than inequality of income?

5. Changes in Family Income and Time, 1971-2006

6. Data To span longest period of time, use 2 sources
Survey of Consumer Finance, or SCF (1971, 1975, and 1991, as available from Luxembourg Income Study)
Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, or SLID for recent years (accessed through the ARDC)
SLID replaced SCF, similar sampling frames, but different surveys

7. Calculating Family Income Position
For each year, use full sample population to calculate decile ‘cut points’
Comparing Canadian families with children to general population (less likely to be at very bottom or very top)

8. Analysis Sample Households with children under 18
Only 2 adults (elderly parents may be source of help or additional care-giving responsibility)
Drop households in which either parent experienced unemployment (to avoid saying they are ‘rich in time’)

10. Family Paid Work Hours
Consider total family paid hours (mother + father)
Usual hours per week (most relevant for experience of ‘time crunch’)

12. Time and Money Packages
Illustrate for 1971 and for 2006
Curves show average combinations of paid work time and family income for each decile in given year

14. Time/Money Trajectories
Curves trace paid-hour/disposable income combinations across time for selected deciles

17. Gender Differences in Paid Work Hours

20. Time, Money and the Well-being of Canadian Parents
Data = Canadian time-use data from 1992 and 2005 (Statistics Canada General Social Survey)

21. Time Crunch Index
Constructed from ‘yes’ / ‘no’ answers to ten questions, such as:
When you need more time, do you tend to cut back on your sleep?
Do you feel that you’re constantly under stress trying to accomplish more than you can handle?
Do you feel that you just don’t have time for fun anymore?
Index ranges from 0 to 10 (maximum time stress).

22. Table 1. Time Crunch by Quintile
Parents
1992
3.90
4.19
4.17
4.30
4.13
2005
4.94
4.82
4.46
4.48
4.49
Mothers
4.29
4.12
4.22
4.77
4.69
5.16
5.09
4.67
5.01
4.91
Fathers
3.37
4.26
3.95
3.71
4.74
4.53
4.28
4.11
4.18

23. Multivariate Analyses
Estimate ordered probit models for parental well-being
Key explanatory variables = family income and dummies for total paid work time (given spikes in hours data)
Other controls reflect major changes over last decades

24. Table 1. Ordered probit models for time crunch
Parents
Mothers
Fathers
Mother
0.189***
(0.032)
Family income (log)
-0.059*
(0.034)
-0.026
(0.050)
-0.077
(0.048)
Total paid hours less than 35
-0.141*
(0.077)
-0.260**
(0.102)
-0.027
(0.115)
Total paid hours 35 to 60
-0.104***
(0.039)
-0.230***
(0.056)
0.011
Total paid hours greater than 80
0.237***
(0.043)
0.286***
(0.058)
0.201***
(0.064)
2005
0.075**
0.085*
(0.044)
0.057
(0.046)
Additional controls: age, education, family size, presence of pre-school aged child, immigrant status, region, urban/rural status.

25. Life Satisfaction
“Satisfaction with life as a whole right now, from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied)
Only available for 2005

26. Parents Mothers Mother 0.035 (0.048) Family income (log) 0.172***
Table 2. Ordered probit models for parental
life satisfaction.
Parents
Mothers
Mother
0.035
(0.048)
Family income (log)
0.172***
(0.058)
0.299***
(0.071)
Paid hours less than 35
-0.063
(0.124)
-0.029
(0.149)
Paid hours 35 to 60
0.080
(0.059)
0.121
(0.084)
Paid hours more than 80
-0.113*
(0.061)
-0.153*
(0.083)

27. Implications
Ordered probit coefficients indicate that, all else equal, an increase from 2 full-time jobs to 2 high-hours jobs would require a family income 2/3 higher to off-set negative implications for mother life satisfaction

28. Growing Inequality of Well-being?
Between 1994 and 2006, families in 4th decile working 80+ hours increased from 13 to 21%, average real income growth was only 18%
Over same period, no change in number of 9th or 10th decile families working 80+ hours, yet real incomes increased by 28% and 40%, respectively

29. Conclusions
Total paid hours supplied by parents have increased across the income distribution
Largest increases in paid hours for modest income families; no matching increases in real income
Relative growth in time stress for lower-income parents
Inequality of well-being may have increased even more than inequality of income?
Mothers particularly affected