ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the hypotheses and concepts beyond the household production function approach on which the reviewed empirical work on the interdependency between female employment and the demand for washing machines has been based. An increase in female labor force participation over time is a sufficient condition for the purchase of time saving washing machines which replace the household’s input of time into the domestic activity of laundry washing. Whether wives’ employment is the decisive factor behind the demand for washing machines will be scrutinized in the following literature review. The chapter summarizes the material with which both aspects of the time substitution hypothesis can be put to the test. It presents studies with which the Short-Run Time Substitution Hypothesis can be scrutinized. Taking the empirical findings seriously, many arguments have been put forth to make sense of the missing link between the employment status of the wife and household cleanliness consumption.
