Utilizing Informal Household-Work Substitutes along the US–Mexico Border: Evidence from South Texas

Abstract

Utilizing a unique sample of 357 consumers from South Texas, this paper explores the informal or “off the books” consumption of house-work substitutes. Specifically, two ubiquitous house-work services, house cleaning and yard work, are examined. Regionally, these household maid and gardening services are typically exchanged within an informal cross-border market. As such the determinants of consuming these services are estimated from the perspective of the South Texas borderlands informal consumer. Among the key results, income is an important marker in the ability to consume house-work substitutes where those with more resources are able to pass along house-work duties to others. Hence, informal maid and gardening services are normal goods. Other results and policy considerations are discussed.

Notes

¹ I use the terms maid and gardener to reflect the more common word choice used in South Texas.

² All names referring to interviewees in this paper are pseudonyms.

³ The Borderlife Project, under the direction of Dr Chad Richardson (Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Texas – Pan American), trains students as embedded interviewers to investigate and describe cultural and social life situations within the South Texas borderlands. Most research topics start out as ethnographic descriptions. The patterns revealed in the anecdotal accounts permit more focused follow-up and purposive survey-based interviews.

⁴ Translation and back-translation procedures followed Brislin (1980). The survey instrument is available from the author upon request.

⁵ The generation score is constructed as follows: (a) respondent (0 if born in Mexico, otherwise 4); (b) respondent's parents (0 if both parents born in the Mexico, 2 if one parent is born in Mexico [and the other in the US], and 4 if both parents were born in the US); and (c) respondent's grandparents (0 if all born in Mexico [and none born in the US], 1 if 1 grandparent was born in the US [the other 3 born in Mexico], 2 if two grandparents were born in the US [and 2 grandparents born in Mexico], 3 if three grandparents were born in the US [and 1 grandparent born in Mexico], 4 if all grandparents were born in the US [and none born in Mexico]).

⁶ The survey did not specifically ascertain respondent information about the presence or size of a yard at the respondent residence. Nevertheless, there was widespread utilization of gardeners reported in the survey.

⁷ The data collected from the survey did not permit further exploration as to the demand-side trade-off between household work and leisure time or the supply-side trade-off between facilitation mechanisms and work authorization. I thank an anonymous reviewer for pointing out this limitation. Nonetheless, optimization analyses considering these demand- and supply-side trade-offs along a budget constraint for informal homework substitute services may add to this exploratory stream of research for future researchers.

⁸ Correlation checks between the independent variables in the logistic regression model indicate no substantial issues with multicollinearity.

⁹ In the LRGV Spanish is more widely spoken, especially at home, than English.