Author: webadmin

In the paper published recently in the Journal of Happiness Studies Michał Myck and Monika Oczkowska, together with their co-authors Maja Adena (WZB Berlin) and Daniel Hamermesh (University of Texas at Austin), examine differences between widowed and partnered older women in well-being and its development in widowhood. Their analysis accounts for time use, an aspect which has not been studied previously. For that purpose they use data from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and time diaries from Poland, the U.S., the U.K. and France. In the study the authors trace the evolution of well-being of women who become widowed by comparing them with their matched non-widowed ‘statistical twins’ and examine the role of an exceptionally broad set of potential moderators of widowhood’s impact on well-being. They confirm a dramatic decrease in mental health and life satisfaction after the loss of partner, followed by a slow partial recovery over a 5-year period. An extensive set of controls recorded prior to widowhood, including detailed family ties and social networks, provides little help in explaining the deterioration in well-being. Unique data from time-diaries kept by older women in several European countries and the U.S. tell us why: the key factor behind widows’ reduced well-being is increased time spent alone.

The article is available here.

In the paper published recently in the 50th Celebratory Volume of the Research in Labor Economics, Daniel Hamermesh (University of Texas at Austin), Michał Myck (CenEA) and Monika Oczkowska (CenEA) take a closer look at the consequences of widowhood with respect to individuals’ time use.

As the article states, comparing older married women to widows in the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) 2003–2018 and linking the data to the Current Population Survey allow inferring the short- and longer-term effects of a demographic shock – husband’s death – and measuring the paths of adjustment of time use to it. Widows differ from otherwise similar married women, especially from married women with working husbands, by cutting back on home production, mainly food preparation and housework, mostly by engaging in less of it each day, not doing it less frequently. The ratio of time to money expenditures on one item – food – is higher among married older couples than among widows. Widows are alone for 2/3 of the time they had spent with their spouses, with a small increase in time with friends and relatives shortly after becoming widowed. Older French, Italian, German, and Dutch women exhibit similar differences in time use; European widows also feel less time stress than married women. Following older women in 18 European countries before and after a partner’s death shows that becoming widowed reduces their feelings of time pressure.

The article is available here.

An earlier version of the analysis was published as NBER Working Paper No. 28752: Hamermesh, Myck, Oczkowska (2021) Widows’ Time, Time Stress and Happiness: Adjusting to Loss.