Bundling Time and Goods: Implications for Hours Dispersion

Lei Fang, Anne Hannusch () and Pedro Silos
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Anne Hannusch: https://www.anne-hannusch.com/

No 2020-1, FRB Atlanta Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Abstract: We document the large dispersion in hours worked in the cross-section. We account for this fact using a model in which households combine market inputs and time to produce a set of nonmarket activities. To estimate the model, we create a novel data set that pairs market expenditures and time use at the activity level using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey and the American Time Use Survey, respectively. The estimated model can account for a large fraction of the dispersion of hours worked in the data. The substitutability between market inputs and time within an activity and across a sizable number of activities is key to our results. We show that models that lack these features can only generate one third of the observed hours dispersion.

Keywords: time allocation; consumption expenditures; hours dispersion; elasticity of substitution; diversity; college graduates; consumption (Economics) - United States; hours of labor; labor supply (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 E21 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50
Date: 2020-01-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Bundling Time and Goods: Implications for Hours Dispersion (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedawp:87689

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DOI: 10.29338/wp2020-01

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