Abstract

This study quantifies the monetary value of unpaid work in Bangladesh by integrating data from the Bangladesh Time Use Survey (TUS) 2021 and the Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2022. Despite its significant contribution to household welfare and the economy, unpaid work remains excluded from official national accounts. Grounded in Becker’s (1965) theory of time allocation, the analysis applies the opportunity cost approach to impute potential market wages for individuals’ unpaid hours using standard Mincer wage equations estimated from the LFS. The results show that unpaid work accounts for approximately 21.2 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP, with women contributing about 81 percent of this value. The results also reveal pronounced gender, educational, and rural–urban disparities in time allocation and unpaid work value, highlighting the disproportionate burden borne by women and suggesting an unequal allocation of time between market and non-market activities. Overall, the findings underscore that Bangladesh’s productive capacity extends beyond market transactions and indicate that existing patterns of unpaid work reflect potential labour misallocation with important policy implications for promoting gender equality, expanding care infrastructure, and advancing Sustainable Development Goal.