James Mahmud Rice (born 1972) is an Australian sociologist in the Demography and Ageing Unit, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. He works at the intersection of sociology, economics, and political science, focusing in particular on inequalities in the distribution of economic resources such as income and time and how private and public conventions and institutions shape these inequalities.[1]
Whether domestic appliances designed to save time on housework, like dishwashers, microwave ovens, deep freezers, and clothes dryers, actually do save time has been examined in research by Michael Bittman, James Mahmud Rice, and Judy Wajcman.[4] According to this research these appliances rarely reduce the amount of time people spend on housework and can, in some cases, increase this time. These appliances also have little impact on the traditional division of housework between men and women. When appliances do cut time on housework, it is generally men who benefit rather than women. One explanation offered as to why appliances rarely reduce time on housework is that people use appliances to increase housework standards – for example, to cook more or better meals or to produce cleaner clothes – rather than to save time.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]
How low fertility influences standards of living is examined in research published in Science by Ronald Lee, Andrew Mason, James Mahmud Rice, and other members of the National Transfer Accounts Network.[21] This research indicates, on the basis of an analysis of data from 40 countries, that typically fertility well above replacement and population growth would be most beneficial for government budgets. Fertility near replacement and population stability, however, would be most beneficial for standards of living when the analysis includes the effects of age structure on families as well as governments. Fertility moderately below replacement and population decline would maximize standards of living when the cost of providing capital for a growing labour force is taken into account.
Rice, James M.; Temple, Jeromey B.; McDonald, Peter F. (2017). "Private and public consumption across generations in Australia". Australasian Journal on Ageing. 36 (4): 279–285. doi:10.1111/ajag.12489. hdl:11343/253838. PMID29205845. S2CID21715593.
Rice, James Mahmud; Temple, Jeromey B.; McDonald, Peter F. (2021). "Intergenerational inequality and the intergenerational state". Journal of Population Research. 38 (4): 367–399. doi:10.1007/s12546-021-09273-1. S2CID239233692.