Семинар «Adjusting to Loss: Widows’ Time, Time Stress and Happiness»

15 декабря 2020 г. состоялся международный семинар IZA и ВШЭ по экономике труда.

Speaker: Daniel S.Hamermesh (Barnard College,IZA and NBER).

Title: Adjusting to Loss: Widows’ Time, Time Stress and Happiness.

By age 77 a plurality of women in wealthy Western societies are widows. Comparing older (ages 70+) married women to widows in the American Time Use Survey 2003-18 and linking the data to the Current Population Survey allow inferring the short- and longer-term effects of an arguably exogenous shock— husband’s death—and measuring the paths of adjustment to it. Widows differ from otherwise similar married women, and especially from married women with working husbands, by cutting back on home production, especially food preparation and housework, mostly by engaging in less of it each day, not doing it less frequently. British, French, Italian, German and Dutch widows behave similarly. Widows are alone during most of the time they had spent with their spouses, with only a small increase in time with friends and relatives (except shortly after becoming widowed). They feel less time stress than married women but are less satisfied with their lives, with the shortfall stemming entirely from the extra time spent alone. Following older women in 18 European countries before and after a partner’s death shows the exact same changes in their feelings of time pressure and life satisfaction. Most of the adjustment of time use in response to widowhood occurs within one year of the husband’s death; but reduced life satisfaction and feelings of depression persist much longer. Joint work with Michal Myck and Monika Oczkowska.

Working paper

Discussant: Andrew Clark (Paris School of Economics and IZA).