Skip to main content
Log in

Analysis of activity participation and time use decisions of partners: the context of low-and high-income households

  • Published:
Transportation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper investigates the non-work activity participation and time allocation decisions of couples of low- and high-income households by utilizing primary activity-travel behavior data collected from Bhubaneswar, India. The study estimates a multivariate Probit model for the decision to participate and a multivariate Tobit for the time allocation to out-of-home child maintenance, household maintenance, and recreational activities. The inter-and intra-personal linkages and the nature of the interaction (substitution or complementary effect) associated with the decisions are captured using the models. The analysis reveals that the percentage of high-income female heads participating in recreational activities is approximately 12% more than that of low-income female heads. Regarding time allocation to recreational activities, an average high-income female head spends 28 min more than a low-income female head. In comparison, a low-income mother allocates approximately 13 min more than an average high-income mother to household maintenance activities. The correlation coefficient associated with activity participation and time allocation decisions in low-income families reveals substitution effects regarding the inter- and intra-personal interactions. At the same time, the complementary nature of the interaction was reported for their high-income counterparts. In addition, it is observed that the activity participation decisions are more pronounced between spouses of high-income households compared to low-income families. In contrast, the time-allocations decisions in both household types are relatable. Further, possessing a driving license and owning a car significantly increases high-income female heads’ participation and time allocation in non-work activities. The models also reveal that locating inside the municipality increases female heads’ likelihood of participating in recreational activities. Low-income female heads tend to decrease recreational activity time use if they are within the municipality limits. High-income mothers, on the other hand, are observed to increase durations. An increase in distance to school from home significantly reduces male heads’ involvement in out-of-home child maintenance activities for both household types.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Hereafter ‘spouses’/ ‘partners’/ ‘couples’.

  2. The present study includes behaviors of both nuclear family (a married couple with children) and lineal extended (elder parents and family of their son or daughter).

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge that a portion of the results discussed in this paper was presented as a poster titled, Parent's Time Allocation in Low-Income Households: Case Study of Bhubaneswar, India, at the Transportation Research Board 2020 Annual Meeting. The suggestions of two anonymous reviewers have significantly improved an earlier version of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

The authors confirm their contributions to the article as follows. First Author – research idea, data collection, model building and interpretation, and article writing. Second author – research idea, supervision, model interpretation, and article writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Manoj.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author declares no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sarangi, P., Manoj, M. Analysis of activity participation and time use decisions of partners: the context of low-and high-income households. Transportation 49, 1017–1058 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-021-10202-7

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-021-10202-7

Keywords

Navigation