A model of household task allocation and time use Junyi Zhang a, * , Harry J.P. Timmermans b, * , Aloys Borgers b a Transport Studies Group, Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation, Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama 1-5-1, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8529, Japan b Urban Planning Group, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands Received 11 June 2001; received in revised form 17 June 2003; accepted 24 March 2004 Available online Abstract Most existing activity-based models of transport demand are based on individual activity-travel choice. Although it has been realized that activities in multiple person households need to be coordinated and sometimes synchronized in time and space, there is still a lack of household-level models of activity- travel demand. Recently, several potentially productive areas of time use research have been identi- fied, including the allocation of tasks, resources and possessions to household members, and joint activity engagement by household members. This paper reports on the development of a household task allocation and time use model based on a multi-linear group utility function. Using activity-travel diary data, collected in the South Rotterdam Region, the Netherlands, a model of household task allocation and time use, incorporating the influence of travel time, was estimated. The model also allows quantifying the relative influence of the household members. The results indicate that, on weekdays, for nearly half of the households the husband mostly influences task allocation and time use, for one-fifth of the house- holds it is the wife and the remaining households show an equal relative influence for the husband and wife. Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Task and time allocation; Multi-linear group utility function; Intra-household/individual interactions * Corresponding authors. Tel./fax: +81-824-24-6919 (J. Zhang); Tel.: +31-40-247-3315; fax: +31-40-247-5882 (H.J.P. Timmermans). E-mail addresses: zjy@hiroshima-u.ac.jp (J. Zhang), h.j.p.timmermans@bwk.tue.nl (H.J.P. Timmermans). 0191-2615/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.trb.2004.03.001 Transportation Research Part B 39 (2005) 81–95 www.elsevier.com/locate/trb