Trends in the Outsourcing of Domestic Work and Childcare in the Netherlands

Ruijter, Esther de

doi:10.1177/0001699304046247

Cited by 28 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…De Ruijter (), using Dutch data, concludes that the increase in child care can be explained as a general behavioural change, indicative of a shift in social values with respect to child care. An increase in the outsourcing off household tasks can be explained by compositional change, especially the growing number of dual earners and singles.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outsourcing child care, home cleaning and meal preparation

Cornelisse-Vermaat

Ophem

Antonides

et al. 2013

Int J Consumer Studies

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In this paper the outsourcing of childcare, home cleaning and meal preparation is analysed by means of a socio-economic model that incorporates household-economic, lifecycle, lifestyle and health variables.The data (n= 700) was collected during a telephone survey in the Netherlands. About 10 per cent of the households did not use any of the three forms of outsourcing. About 70 to 90 per cent of households outsourced meal preparation. In any household type, the average monthly expenditures on outsourcing meal preparation were the highest of the three outsourcing categories. In the data analysis a Heckman selection model was applied.Factors affecting different outsourcing expenditures were generally the same for each type of outsourcing studied . Household economic variables as wage and working hours were in general not important in explaining the incidence and expenditures of outsourcing. The same hold for health. Childcare expenditures were also affected positively by life-cycle variables. There was an indication that a traditional lifestyle and traditional family type affected outsourcing expenditures negatively. Education appeared as an important taste shaper: regardless of gender, both medium and higher educated people were more inclined to spend money on outsourcing than the lower educated. Especially people younger than 44 years outsourced meal preparation. Outsourcing was neither restricted to nor especially practised by couples.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outsourcing child care, home cleaning and meal preparation

Cornelisse-Vermaat

Ophem

Antonides

et al. 2013

Int J Consumer Studies

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“…Families with several children may be more likely to have older children perform child care or other chores, thus avoiding outsourcing of household labor because of scarce resources (de Ruijter, 2004). Larger households typically are more likely to need household outsourcing but also may find that their resources are stretched thin from larger sizes.…”

Section: Income Bargaining and Outsourcingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Household Income, Women's Earnings, and Spending on Household Services, 1980–2010

Kornrich

Roberts

2017

J of Marriage and Family

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“…As discussed earlier, normative perceptions regarding non-parental care, the role of parents in general, and the role of mothers in particular, as well as beliefs regarding children's well-being, might affect both government inclinations to provide childcare services and parents' and households' decisions to outsource childcare (Kremer 2006). De Ruijter (2004), for example, interprets the increase over time in the use of daycare in the Netherlands as a behavioral change that stems from a shift in societal values concerning childcare. Raz-Yurovich (2012) suggests that the availability of affordable and high-quality childcare facilities might be a necessary but not sufficient precondition for the use of such facilities in certain societies.…”

Section: Facilitators Of and Barriers To Outsourcing Among Householdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Transaction Cost Approach to Outsourcing by Households

Raz-Yurovich

2014

Population & Development Rev

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A growing body of literature suggests that the outsourcing of household chores and caring responsibilities is increasingly used by couples as a strategy for more effectively combining work and family life. In the outsourcing process households contract out functions that were previously done in-house to commercial or public-sector service providers. The difficulties facing couples, especially women, in balancing work and family responsibilities affect both their fertility and their employment characteristics. Policy initiatives taken by welfare states seeking to raise low fertility are often aimed at decreasing this role incompatibility, especially by allowing women to maintain their careers while bringing up children (e.g., through longer maternity leave with protection against dismissal, access to affordable childcare, shorter working hours, part-time or flexible jobs, etc.). Apart from being themselves providers of childcare services, some governments also actively encourage households to outsource other tasks, such as housework, in order to reduce women's role incompatibility and allow them to join the labor force.The commercial sector also provides households with services that were once performed within families. In the "new" service economy, families in effect externalize certain aspects of household production, such as childcare, food preparation, and cleaning, and purchase these services in commercial markets. As Esping-Andersen (2009) has noted, a century ago service consumption was mostly driven by demand from privileged rich groups within society, while today's demand is more widely spread through the population. The supply side also plays a part: growing numbers of low-wage workers, many of them poorly protected immigrants, provide a pool of potential service workers (Hondagneu-Sotelo 2001).

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Trends in the Outsourcing of Domestic Work and Childcare in the Netherlands

Cited by 28 publications

References 22 publications

Outsourcing child care, home cleaning and meal preparation

Outsourcing child care, home cleaning and meal preparation

Household Income, Women's Earnings, and Spending on Household Services, 1980–2010

A Transaction Cost Approach to Outsourcing by Households

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