earners, these facts may indicate that fiscal policy in Armenia seems to be associated with women (1) staying out of the labor force, (2) taking lower-paying employment, and/or (3) working in economic activities that tend to be in the informal sector.<sup>29</sup> The fiscal system significantly reduces gender gaps in incomes for all household types, but the gaps for households with dependents remain negative and the largest, indicating that dependents create demands on caregivers more so than they contribute to the supply of caregiving. On the other hand, the presence of stay-at-home elders reduces the gender gap relative to a household type with dependents but no assistance from elders. The reduction is most significant from pre-fiscal to disposable incomes, highlighting the association with household labor market decisions and the associated PIT liabilities.<sup>30</sup> For reference, the relatively small gender gap at pre-fiscal income in households with neither older-age nor younger-age dependents is actually reversed and becomes a gender “bonus” at the disposable and consumable income concepts. These patterns are consistent with older-age dependents contributing resources to care, social reproduction, and household production simultaneous with creating expenses associated with their care needs; they are also consistent with those expenses being assigned more frequently to women.

# c. Incorporating Time-Use Data

Worldwide, women spend over three times as much of their time on unpaid work, and approximately one-third as much of their time on paid work, as men (Charmes 2019). The volume of unpaid work may mean women have less time than men to engage in paid work; or women may feel restricted to jobs allowing for a balance between paid and unpaid work. Either way, a one-hour decrease in time spent on unpaid care work is correlated with a fivepercent increase in women’s labor force participation (Ferrant and others 2014).

Women in Armenia are much more likely than men to miss economic opportunities due to childcare, older dependent care and support, and other social reproduction activities. Women experience “time poverty” linked to responsibilities for unpaid domestic tasks and non-utilization of childcare services. A contributing factor to women’s burden is the low enrolment of children in preschool institutions, at only 30 percent nationally and 17 percent in rural areas in Armenia (SCRA 2021). Although there are government-provided childcare services, childcare payments are not tax deductible and private childcare centers do not receive nontax benefits (USAID 2019).

> 29. For example, informal employment, household production for self-consumption, and other forms of work outside labor markets such as domestic work at one’s own household, and childcare. Domestic tasks, including childcare and care for other household members are generally classified as out-of-the labor-force. This paper situates all social reproduction activities squarely within the set of economic activities that a household pursues.

> 30. Contributory pension incomes (and other benefits) also have a significant gender-equalizing effect, particularly among households with elders 65 to 79 years old.

20