Time use, work and overlapping activities: evidence from Australia

The overlapping of activities is an important dimension of time use that has previously received little attention in economic analysis. Most time-use studies have looked only at primary activities, ignoring the fact that individuals often perform two or more activities simultaneously. This seriously underestimates the time spent on several economic activities such as childcare and housework which are also performed as secondary activities. Using a two-adult household sub-sample from the 1992 National Australian Time Use Survey, this paper examines the incidence and determinants of overlapping activities among 3,966 adult male and female household members. It first shows that inclusion of overlapping activities in time-use measurements provides a better estimation of the economic contribution of individuals, especially in nonmarket production. Tobit models are then estimated to examine the effects of economic, social and demographic factors on the incidence of overlapped work activity. The findings, which are found to be robust, showed that gender, household life cycle and composition, education, cultural norms, employment status and level of income earnings influence the extent to which individuals, particularly women, perform secondary work activities. Conclusions are drawn in the final section of the paper.