Careworn: The Economic History of Caring Labor

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) jane Humphries, University of Oxford and London School of Economics

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
Code book.docx application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document 23.8 KB 03/16/2024 04:38:AM
Data Deposit JEH_1.sav application/x-spss-sav 1 MB 03/16/2024 04:39:AM

Project Citation: 

Humphries, jane. Careworn: The Economic History of Caring Labor. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2024-03-16. https://doi.org/10.3886/E199041V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary 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 per cent of total income, a contribution that suggests the need to revise some standard narratives.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms economic history; gender issues; labor history
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage Britain
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 1270 – 1870 (1270-1870)
Collection Date(s):  View help for Collection Date(s) 2015 – 2023 (2015 to 2023)
Universe:  View help for Universe respectable working people
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) administrative records data; other
Collection Notes:  View help for Collection Notes Data collected from different kinds of source and spread over centuries.  Most of the data is from archival or printed primary sources.

Methodology

Sampling:  View help for Sampling A pooled time series and cross section of surviving and located records of what it cost to maintain working people 1270-1870
Data Source:  View help for Data Source Sources are identified in specific terms in data deposit and in general terms in the paper
Unit(s) of Observation:  View help for Unit(s) of Observation individuals
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit individuals

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Published Versions

V1 [2024-03-16]

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