Trade-offs between chore hours and leisure time

Playing is a vital aspect of children’s social, emotional and cognitive development. While playing, children interact with playmates, use language to communicate, think about what to play, create scenarios and engage in activities, the combination of which can enhance their social and cognitive skills. It is also one of the fundamental rights of children. Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states that all children have the right to rest and engage in leisure activities. To the extent domestic chores interfere with children’s playtime, in addition to violating the fundamental rights of children, they jeopardize children’s opportunities to achieve basic skills and succeed in life. Despite its policy significance, little is empirically known whether chores interfere with children’s playtime. Using time-diary data from the 2009 Young Lives survey in Ethiopia and applying instrumental variables (IV) estimators, we find that a one hour increase in chores is associated with a decrease in playtime by 45 minutes, statistically significant at the 1% level. The finding suggests that excessive involvement in chores can have detrimental effects on children’s wellbeing and human capital.