Resumen de Time use within the household: household production, work-life balance and racial discrimination
This doctoral dissertation uses microeconomic analysis to examine the behaviour of the members of the household, developing 3 lines of investigation that focus on time-allocation decisions. The first line of research analyzes how social norms can influence the time allocation decisions of individuals, which in turn may influence life decisions such as partnership formation, especially in countries with more traditional gender norms regarding the distribution of household chores. The second line of investigation analyzes how, to the extent that female workers want to balance their work and family responsibilities, female workers may choose to be self-employed in order to have greater flexibility in their schedules and, thus, to improve the balance between work and family life. Finally, the third line of investigation analyzes the different factors that influence the time devoted to household production, focusing on the effects of the race (skin colour) of the individual, and of racial discrimination in marriage markets. This thesis constitutes a complete study of 3 subjects, integrated within the literature of economics of the family, and complements previous studies on time-allocation decisions and household behaviour.
