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Abstract
Using detailed data from rural Pakistan, this paper investigates whether human
capital, learning by doing, gender, and one's status within the family affect the division of
labor within households. Results suggest the presence of returns to individual
specialization in all farm, nonfarm, and home-based activities. The intrahousehold
division of labor is influenced by comparative advantage, based on human capital and by
long-lasting returns to learning by doing, but we also find evidence of a separate effect of
gender and family status. Households seem to operate as hierarchies with sexually
segregated spheres of activity. The head of household and his or her spouse provide most
of the labor within their respective spheres of influence; other members work less. When
present in the household, daughters-in-law work systematically harder than daughters of
comparable age, build, and education. Other findings of interest are that there are
increasing returns to scale in most household chores, that larger households work more
off-farm, and that better educated individuals enjoy more leisure.