Home, sweet home? The impact of working from home on the division of unpaid work during the COVID-19 lockdown

A lockdown implies a shift from the public to the private sphere, and from market to non-market production, thereby increasing the volume of unpaid work. Already before the pandemic, unpaid work was disproportionately borne by women. This paper studies the effect of working from home for pay (WFH), due to a lockdown, on the change in the division of housework and childcare within couple households. While previous studies on the effect of WFH on the reconciliation of work and family life and the division of labour within the household suffered from selection bias, we are able to identify this effect by drawing upon the shock of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Austria. The corresponding legal measures left little choice over WFH. In any case, WFH is exogenous, conditional on a small set of individual and household characteristics we control for. We employ data from a survey on the gendered aspects of the lockdown. The dataset includes detailed information on time use during the lockdown and on the quality and experience of WFH. Uniquely, this survey data also includes information on the division, and not only magnitude, of unpaid work within households. Austria is an interesting case in this respect as it is characterized by very conservative gender norms. The results reveal that the probability of men taking on a larger share of housework increases if men are WFH alone or together with their female partner. By contrast, the involvement of men in childcare increased only in the event that the female partner was not able to WFH. Overall, the burden of childcare, and particularly homeschooling, was disproportionately borne by women.Series: INEQ Working Paper Serie

A cross-cultural study on odor-elicited life stage-associations

Associative conceptualization plays an important role in how we perceive and interact with our environment. Particularly odor associations can be highly vivid and often long-lasting due to their close connection with our episodic memory and emotions. Based on the findings of a study conducted in Austria in 2017, this work was carried out to investigate odor-elicited life stage-associations (OELSA) in seven nations and to identify potential similarities and differences in conceptualizing odor impressions across these nations. A total of 1144 adults (aged 21–60) from Austria, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Thailand, USA, and Vietnam participated in this study. Nine odors (vanilla, orange, lemon, mint, coconut, basil, rose, anise, and hay) were presented to the participants, and they were asked to answer questions about their spontaneous associations with life stages. The results indicate the existence of OELSA in all investigated nations. For example, vanilla was predominantly assigned to children in all nations, while hay was primarily assigned to elder people. While most of the investigated odors were most frequently associated with adults, some significant differences in OELSA were observed between the different nationalities. For instance, mint was more frequently associated with children by Australian participants compared to participants from all other nations, while coconut was more strongly associated with children by the Vietnamese participants compared to all other participants. The results of this study demonstrate the existence of consistent life stage-related associations elicited by certain odors across different nations and cultures and, at the same time points to differences in life stage-related association with certain odors between the nations. Since this work was not designed to identify the reasons for these differences, we can only make assumptions about the potential underlying causes for these behaviors

Studie zu Einstellungen, Kriterien und Labels : Biowein aus Sicht der Weinkonsumenten

Welche Einstellungen haben Konsumenten gegenüber Biowein? Welche Kriterien sind entscheidend beim Kauf einer Falsche Wein? Ist die Verwendung eines Biolables hilfreich für die Vermarktung? Wird Wein mit und ohne Biolabel unterschiedlich wahrgenommen? Die vorliegenden Studien der Fachhochschul-Studiengänge Burgenland in Eisenstadt geben Antwort.Wirtschaf

Perception and acceptance of white wines by consumers belonging to different age groups

Aims: This study investigated whether age has an impact on perception and liking of white wine. Methods and results: Differences between two groups of 50plus consumers (each n=50, 50-65 and 65-80 years) and a group of young subjects (n=50, 25-40 years) regarding white wine perception and liking were investigated. Participants blindly rated the perceived sweetness, sourness, aroma intensity and overall liking of six different wines on an 11-point scale. Subjects also performed a taste and smell test. Finally, socio-demographic data and consumerism were collected. This study demonstrated that elderly people perceive sweetness, sourness and aroma intensity only slightly differently compared to younger subjects. The older groups gave slightly higher liking-marks, but results were not significantly different. Sensory attributes (sweet, sour, aroma) of the wines had most influence on liking. Conclusion: This study delivers no proof that age and/or gender explains liking as insulated factor. Generally it seems that sour products were liked less, whereas regularly consumed and sweeter products were preferred. Significance and impact of the study: As sensory properties of the wines, in combination with experience, contribute most to the overall liking of the product, it seems to be more successful economically for producers/outlets to provide wines rich in positively engaged attributes or possessing familiar flavour profiles to the consumers, irrespective of the socio-demographic group of the potential buyer