Working Paper: NBER ID: w23552
Authors: Mark Aguiar; Mark Bils; Kerwin Kofi Charles; Erik Hurst
Abstract: Younger men, ages 21 to 30, exhibited a larger decline in work hours over the last fifteen years than older men or women. Since 2004, time-use data show that younger men distinctly shifted their leisure to video gaming and other recreational computer activities. We propose a framework to answer whether improved leisure technology played a role in reducing younger men's labor supply. The starting point is a leisure demand system that parallels that often estimated for consumption expenditures. We show that total leisure demand is especially sensitive to innovations in leisure luxuries, that is, activities that display a disproportionate response to changes in total leisure time. We estimate that gaming/recreational computer use is distinctly a leisure luxury for younger men. Moreover, we calculate that innovations to gaming/recreational computing since 2004 explain on the order of half the increase in leisure for younger men, and predict a decline in market hours of 1.5 to 3.0 percent, which is 38 and 79 percent of the differential decline relative to older men.
Keywords: Leisure; Labor Supply; Young Men; Gaming Technology
JEL Codes: D1; E24; J01; J2
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| improved leisure technology (O39) | labor supply of younger men (J49) |
| innovations in gaming and recreational computer use since 2004 (L83) | increase in leisure time for younger men (J29) |
| increase in leisure time (J29) | decline in market hours of younger men (J29) |
| 1% increase in leisure time (J29) | more than 2% increase in gaming time for younger men (J29) |