Careworn: the economic history of caring labor

Humphries, Jane (2024) Careworn: the economic history of caring labor. The Journal of Economic History. ISSN 0022-0507

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Abstract

Economists ignore caring labor since most is provided unpaid. Disregard is unjust, theoretically indefensible, and probably misleading. Valuation requires estimates of time spent and the replacement or opportunity costs of that time. I use the maintenance costs of British workers, costs which cover both the material inputs into upkeep and the domestic services needed to turn commodities into livings, to isolate the costs of paid domestic labor. I then impute the value of unpaid domestic labor from these market equivalents, and aggregate across households without domestic servants. Historically, unpaid domestic labor represented c. 20 percent of total income, a contribution that suggests the need to revise some standard narratives.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of...
Additional Information:	© 2024 The Author
Divisions:	Economic History
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
JEL classification:	N - Economic History > N0 - General > N00 - General
Date Deposited:	22 Apr 2024 13:00
Last Modified:	03 May 2024 13:06
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/122725

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