Time, income and substantive freedom

A capability approach

Bibliographic Data

ID4873154
AuthorsTania Burchardt (0000-0003-4822-4954, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume19
Issue3
Pages318-344
Publication date2010-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTime & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0961-463X • E-ISSN: 1461-7463
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0961463x10369754
OpenAlexW2050488938
LanguageEN
Citations received24
References cited22

This article offers a conceptual model of how resources, including time and human and social capital, interact with responsibilities, including personal care, childcare and other unpaid work, to produce a range of feasible time allocations. Each allocation generates a combination of disposable income and free time. This set of feasible income-time combinations provides a measure of the individual's capability set or his/her substantive freedom. The approach is illustrated empirically with data and simulations based on the UK Time Use Survey 2000. The results show that having low educational qualifications (reflecting limited command over resources), having more or younger children (implying greater caring responsibilities), being single and being disabled (both of which adversely affect the rate at which resources can be converted into valuable outcomes) are each independently associated with having a small capability set, defined in terms of the level and range of combinations of disposable income and free time that can be achieved. The paper concludes that the range of combinations of disposable income and free time that a person can achieve provides a useful metric for assessing inequality in individuals' substantive freedom to pursue their goals in life - a key target for liberal egalitarians

Basic income · Capability approach · Economic growth · Economic inequality · Economics · Freedom of choice · Human capital · Inequality · Management · Metric (unit · Microeconomics · Operations management · Public economics · Set (abstract data type · Sociology · Time allocation · Computer Science · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · Mathematics

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