Working Paper: NBER ID: w12264
Authors: Valerie A. Ramey; Neville Francis
Abstract: Has leisure increased over the last century? Standard measures of hours worked suggest that it has. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive measure of non-leisure hours that includes market work, home production, commuting and schooling for the last 105 years. We also present empirical and theoretical arguments for a definition of "per capita" that encompasses the entire population. The new measures reveal a number of interesting 20th Century trends. First, 70 percent of the decline in hours worked has been offset by an increase in hours spent in school. Second, contrary to conventional wisdom, average hours spent in home production are actually slightly higher now than they were in the early part of the 20th Century. Finally, leisure per capita is approximately the same now as it was in 1900.
Keywords: work; leisure; time use; productivity
JEL Codes: E2; N1; N3
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Conventional measures of hours worked (J22) | Comprehensive measures (including schooling, commuting, and home production) indicate leisure per capita has remained stable since 1900 (D13) |
| Increased educational demands (I29) | Stabilizing leisure per capita (E21) |
| Average hours spent in home production (D13) | Shift in how household labor is perceived and measured (D13) |
| Decline in the number of children in households (J12) | Lower labor demands on adults (J29) |