Understanding the Causes and Consequences of Long-Run Trends in Work and Leisure

National Bureau Of Economic Research Inc, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal No: 0617219 Institution: NBER NSF Program: ECONOMICS Principal Investigator: Ramey, Valerie Title: Understanding the Causes and Consequences of Long-Run Trends in Work and Leisure ABSTRACT Time use by economic agents is important to economist and policy makers as it has implications for human capital formation, labor supplies, home production, leisure, and economic outcomes generally. Accounting for time use in this way gives another dimension of living standards. However, most studies of time use by economic agents have relied on cross sectional data or short time series data that does not account for other forms of time use, such as home production. This research project will measure trends in the allocation of time in the US over the last one hundred years. It also investigates the sources of those trends and studies the consequences of demographic and technical changes for economic fluctuations. The first part of the project collects more accurate data of time use and finds that the claim of increasing leisure time over time in the US does not hold up. The second part of the project will investigate the impact of demographic and technological changes on time use during the 20th century while the third part of the study will investigate the effects of demographic changes affect medium term economic fluctuation. These are important issues that have not been investigated with a more comprehensive data set. One of the major problems associated with an analysis of time use in the US is lack of appropriate data. This project will collect a unique data set on time use that accounts for home production for both males and females over a very long period of time that will be useful to the other researchers. In the last century, the introduction of time saving technologies, such as the washing machine, has had a major impact on labor force participation of women. The research will help to answer important questions such as the effects of the diffusion of household appliances and immigration of household workers affect time use, questions that have come to center stage as a result of the recent immigration debate. The research could also help answer the oft repeated argument that demographic changes cause medium term economic fluctuations. Thus the research will provide some illumination on the macroeconomic impacts of demographic changes. The results of this research project will have important labor policy impacts. By answering these questions, this research project will contribute substantially to economic science as well as provide broader policy impacts.