Leisure Luxuries and the Labor Supply of Young Men

S-Tier
Journal: Journal of Political Economy
Year: 2021
Volume: 129
Issue: 2
Pages: 337 - 382

Authors (4)

Mark Aguiar (not in RePEc) Mark Bils (not in RePEc) Kerwin Kofi Charles (not in RePEc) Erik Hurst (University of Chicago)

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 4 authors) × 4.0x S-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We propose a methodology exploiting time diary data and “leisure Engel curves” to infer quality changes across leisure activities and measure the effects on the marginal return to leisure. We study leisure returns for men aged 21–30, who have shifted leisure toward video gaming and recreational computing and have had larger market work hour declines than older men or women since 2004. We show that recreational computing is distinctly a leisure luxury for younger men. By increasing the value of time, innovations to this leisure technology have lowered young men's work hours by 2%, or much of their work hours decline compared to older men's.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/711916
Journal Field
General
Author Count
4
Added to Database
2026-02-02