Rising inequality and trends in leisure

Timo Boppart and L. Rachel Ngai

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper develops a model that generates rising average leisure time and increasing leisure inequality along a path of balanced growth. Households derive utility from three sources: market goods, home goods and leisure. Home production and leisure are both activities that require time and capital. Households allocate time and capital to these non-market activities and supply labor. The dynamics are driven by activity-specific TFP growth and a spread in the distribution of household-specific labor market efficiencies. When the spread is set to replicate the increase in wage inequality across education groups, the model can account for the observed average time series and cross-sectional dynamics of leisure time in the U.S. over the last five decades.

Keywords: leisure; labor supply; inequality; home-production; balanced growth path (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 J22 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2021-06-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published in Journal of Economic Growth, 1, June, 2021, 26(2), pp. 153 – 185. ISSN: 1381-4338

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/108919/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Rising inequality and trends in leisure (2021)
Working Paper: Rising inequality and trends in leisure (2017)
Working Paper: Rising inequality and trends in lesiure (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:108919

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