Time-use information is preferably obtained from diaries, as this method is considered more reliable than information from questionnaires. Data from the Danish Time Use Survey 2001 thus indicate differences in the level of unpaid work, whereas only minor differences appear for paid work. That is: people reporting many hours of paid work tend to over-report the actual number of hours worked, while those reporting a small number of hours tend to underreport their contribution. For unpaid work, the same pattern appears. Moreover, men are found to be more unreliable than women in evaluating their amount of work on the labour market, while the opposite is the case for the unpaid/household work, with women underreporting their contribution more than men. The implication is that labour supplystudies based on questionnaire-information, i.e. Labour Force Surveys, are less accurate than studies based on diary-information. Copyright Springer 2005methodology for collecting microeconomic data, time allocation and labour supply,

Relative income, Well-being, Happiness, Intra-household allocation, Unitary models, D13, D60, D63, I31,

The division of domestic work bears little resemblance to the ideals of rational specialization espoused in Becker's (1991) theory. Many sociologists explain this as a manifestation of 'doing gender'. We argue that a multiple equilibrium framework can help account for variations in couple specialization. The framework is dynamic, highlights the presence of competing normative regimes, and it helps empirical identification of Pareto optimal and non-optimal couple specialization. To compensate for the lack of longitudinal data, we seek to capture dynamics by analyzing time use data for three countries that represent distinct stages in the ongoing gender revolution, namely Britain, Denmark and Spain. We identify a traditional, egalitarian and unstable family equilibrium and argue that inefficient and inequitable specialization is primarily associated with the lack of clear normative guidance within unstable equilibria. The traditional equilibrium remains dominant in Spain while Denmark has advanced considerably towards an egalitarian equilibrium. In Britain, the traditional equilibrium is now marginal but no egalitarian alternative has yet emerged. Inefficiency in couple behaviour is therefore especially pronounced. Our equity analyses yield surprising results since we find more equity in Britain than in Denmark. Widespread inequity within Danish couples is almost exclusively due to women being advantaged.