Working Paper: NBER ID: w12082
Authors: Mark Aguiar; Erik Hurst
Abstract: In this paper, we use five decades of time-use surveys to document trends in the allocation of time. We find that a dramatic increase in leisure time lies behind the relatively stable number of market hours worked (per working-age adult) between 1965 and 2003. Specifically, we show that leisure for men increased by 6-8 hours per week (driven by a decline in market work hours) and for women by 4-8 hours per week (driven by a decline in home production work hours). This increase in leisure corresponds to roughly an additional 5 to 10 weeks of vacation per year, assuming a 40-hour work week. Alternatively, the "consumption equivalent" of the increase in leisure is valued at 8 to 9 percent of total 2003 U.S. consumption expenditures. We also find that leisure increased during the last 40 years for a number of sub-samples of the population, with less-educated adults experiencing the largest increases. Lastly, we document a growing "inequality" in leisure that is the mirror image of the growing inequality of wages and expenditures, making welfare calculation based solely on the latter series incomplete.
Keywords: leisure; time allocation; time-use surveys
JEL Codes: D12; D13; J22
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| leisure time for men increased by 68 hours per week (J22) | decline in market work hours (J29) |
| leisure time for women increased by 48 hours per week (J22) | reduction in home production work hours (J22) |
| increase in leisure for men and women (J29) | additional 5 to 10 weeks of vacation per year (J22) |
| increase in leisure (J29) | consumption equivalent valued at 8 to 9 percent of total U.S. consumption expenditures in 2003 (E20) |
| less-educated adults experienced the largest increases in leisure (J29) | growing inequality in leisure (D31) |
| growing inequality in leisure (D31) | trends in wage and expenditure inequality (D31) |