Working Paper: NBER ID: w7455
Authors: Daniel S. Hamermesh
Abstract: This study goes beyond the immense literature on the quantity of labor that households supply to examine the timing of their labor/leisure choices. Using two-year panels from the United States in the 1970s it demonstrates that couples prefer to consume leisure simultaneously: Synchronization is greater than random male-female pairing would predict. In the 1970s the demand for joint leisure among working couples was more responsive to increases in wives' earnings than to husbands', but by the 1990s the responses were identical. Couples react to changes in constraints on them by altering their schedules to preserve joint leisure, and those with higher full incomes consume more of their leisure jointly. Children reduce the jointness of spouses' leisure, with the greatest change in schedules occurring among new mothers.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: J22; J13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Birth of a child (J13) | Jointness of spouses' leisure time (D13) |
| Birth of a child (J13) | Work hours of mothers (J22) |
| Work hours of mothers (J22) | Jointness of spouses' leisure time (D13) |
| Birth of a child (J13) | Timing of spouses' work hours (J29) |
| Timing of spouses' work hours (J29) | Jointness of spouses' leisure time (D13) |