I'll Go Do My Laundry Now

Having a husband creates an extra seven hours a week of housework for women, according to a University of Michigan study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. families.

For men, the picture is very different: A wife saves men from about an hour of housework a week.

So, are men lazy and are women unfairly burdened with household chores? I doubt it. It’s a simple case of division of labor and divergent preferences. When two people are married there are gains from trade that free up labor. Individuals will allocate their excess labor toward the activity which provides them with the most utility. For women, that might mean spending more time cooking a good meal or keeping the house clean. For men, it probably means more Sports Center. What's wrong with that?

Suppose my neighbor and I both spend two hours a week keeping our yards tidy. Then, suppose we move in together and the advantages of cohabitating provides each of us with five additional hours that were previously used for necessary tasks. I could plausibly allocate all five of my *leisure* hours to yard work if I took a lot of pride in a nice lawn or if I really enjoyed gardening. The most my new roommate could reduce his time working in the yard is two hours. Is this new arrangement unfair? Would we really say that my neighbor/roommate was shirking his yard duties?If I cut back on my hours working outside my roommate would not necessarily pick up the slack...because there is no slack.

In fact, the only way an equal distribution of tasks would be ideal is if a couple had identical abilities and identical tastes. What fun would that be?

If sharing the burden of household chores is important, you would be wiser to look at your future partner’s preferences, not their work ethic. If dividing chores equally is not important, then go ahead and make your life easier by engaging in a little Coasian bargaining.