Outsourcing childcare, home cleaning and meal preparation

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