A Century of Work and Leisure

Ramey, Valerie A.; Francis, Neville

doi:10.1257/mac.1.2.189

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American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics: Vol. 1 No. 2 (July 2009)

AEJ: Macro Volume. 1, Issue 2 | left

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A Century of Work and Leisure

Article Citation

Ramey, Valerie A., and Neville Francis. 2009. "A Century of Work and Leisure." American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 1(2): 189-224.

DOI: 10.1257/mac.1.2.189

Abstract

We develop comprehensive measures of time spent in market work, home production, schooling, and leisure in the United States for the last 106 years. We find that hours of work for prime age individuals are essentially unchanged, with the rise in women's hours fully compensating for the decline in men's hours. Hours worked by those 14 to 24 years old have declined noticeably, but most of this decline was offset by a rise in hours spent in school. Overall, per capita leisure and average annual lifetime leisure increased by only four or five hours per week during the last 100 years. (JEL D13, J16, J22)

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Authors

Ramey, Valerie A. (U CA, San Diego)
Francis, Neville (U NC)

JEL Classifications

D13: Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation
J16: Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
J22: Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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