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Cheap Thrills: The Price of Leisure and the Global Decline in Work Hours

Author

Listed:
  • Alexandr Kopytov
  • Nikolai Roussanov
  • Mathieu Taschereau-Dumouchel

Abstract

Recreation prices and hours worked have both fallen over the last century. We construct a macroeconomic model with general preferences that allows for trending recreation prices, wages, and work hours along a balanced-growth path. Estimating the model using aggregate data from OECD countries, we find that the fall in recreation prices can explain a large fraction of the decline in hours. We also use our model to show that the diverging prices of the recreation bundles consumed by different demographic groups can account for much of the increase in leisure inequality observed in the United States over the last decades.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexandr Kopytov & Nikolai Roussanov & Mathieu Taschereau-Dumouchel, 2023. "Cheap Thrills: The Price of Leisure and the Global Decline in Work Hours," Journal of Political Economy Macroeconomics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 80-118.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpemac:doi:10.1086/723717
    DOI: 10.1086/723717
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jeremy Greenwood & Nezih Guner & Ricardo Marto, 2021. "The Great Transition: Kuznets Facts for Family-Economists," Economie d'Avant Garde Research Reports 33, Economie d'Avant Garde.
    2. Pauline Carry, 2022. "The Effects of the Legal Minimum Working Time on Workers, Firms and the Labor Market," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) hal-04067393, HAL.
    3. Mathilde Aubouin & Lionel Ragot, 2024. "The Macroeconomics of Free Digital Services," Working Papers hal-04616676, HAL.
    4. Lei Fang & Anne Hannusch & Pedro Silos, 2021. "Luxuries, Necessities, and the Allocation of Time," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2021-28, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    5. Xi Luan & Jialu You, 2026. "Rat Race: Work Hours and Economic Inequality," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 17(1), pages 1799-1817, February.
    6. William Bednar & Nick Pretnar, 2019. "Home Production with Time to Consume," 2019 Meeting Papers 328, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Motghare, Swapnil, 2021. "The long-run elasticity of labor supply: New evidence for New York City taxicab driversā˜†," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions

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