Determinants of Time Spent by Egyptian Females (15-64 years) on Domestic Work

Domestic and care work is an important type of unpaid work that contributes significantly to human welfare and wellbeing. However, it has been excluded from the view of the national accounts and consequently from the policy makers' considerations. In many cultures, domestic tasks are considered the main role of women, even if they do paid work outside home. Since this type of work isn't considered, the real contribution of women to economy and welfare is consequently underestimated.Using the Egyptian labor force sample survey of 2006, the determinants of time spent in domestic and care work are investigated for both, currently married and single females.
While Tobit model is more common in time used data, this paper compares also the Tobit model with Regression model (OLS) and Fractional Logit Model. Results showed that if the number of zeros increases, the Tobit performance will be better than the Fractional Logit model and the OLS. Also, it showed that the most important determinants of time of domestic and care work are; number of children less than 18 years, presence of husband, presence of adult females in the household, the indexes of women empowerment (mobility, decision making, access to resources, acceptance of domestic violence/fear of violence and cultural norms), place of residence and the standard of living.