Off-scheduling within dual-earner couples: an unequal and negative externality for family time
Résumé
Using couples' time‐diary data from two French time‐use surveys (1986, 1999), this article explores the extent to which off‐scheduling within dual‐earner couples is an unequal and negative externality for family time. An empirical typology of family workdays is built using a variant of optimal matching, and three kinds of family time are taken into account: conjugal time, father‐ and mother‐child time, and parents‐child time. The results indicate that off‐scheduling is an unintentional by‐product of employers’ economic interests and that, since it reduces conjugal and parents‐child time but fails to foster temporal complementarity between parents, it is a negative factor for family solidarity.