Time Use Data in Economics

This project on time-use data in economics is one of the first in a series of new initiatives taken by the board of editors of the european economic review to publish research in newly developing areas in economics. The symposium shows the diversity of potential applications of time-budget data, a major new resource for household economics, labor economics, welfare economics, and other areas. Jacobsen and kooreman examine how a change in shop opening-hours legislation altered consumers’ time allocations. Hamermesh shows that consumers with higher full incomes enjoy more temporal variety. Klevmarken demonstrates that conventional estimates of labor-supply elasticities change substantially when time-budget data are used. Fahr shows the immensity of informal education activities and their positive correlation with formal education.