Age and Gender Differences in the Value of Productive Activities

Abstract

The definition of personal productivity based on paid work is expanded to include many forms of unpaid work. The productivity of these forms of unpaid work is estimated empirically, using several economic approaches (an opportunity cost approach, a market price approach, and a value-added approach) and one noneconomic approach. Additionally, two methods of dealing with selection bias when estimating opportunity costs for nonemployed persons are compared. These different approaches all document the extent to which many of the activities (such as housework, formal volunteer work, or informal help to relatives and friends) that are often performed without pay by older Americans or women are actually productive because they produce goods and services to which a market value can be imputed. Using this expanded definition to describe the productive contribution of men and women at different ages provides a much needed correction to existing social statistics: Women contribute in major ways to U.S. productivity, as do older adults, although to a lesser degree. These findings challenge the stereotypic view of older Americans as unproductive and mere burdens on society. Data were from a 1986 cross-sectional survey of 3,617 adults representative of those 25 years old and older living in the coterminous United States.