The Elasticity of Substitution Between Time and Market Goods: Evidence from the Great Recession / Aviv Nevo, Arlene Wong.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nevo, Aviv.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Wong, Arlene.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w21318.

NBER working paper series no. w21318

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Elasticity of Substitution Between Time and Market Goods

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2015.

Summary:

We document a change in household shopping behavior during the Great Recession. Households purchased more on sale, larger sizes and generic products, increased coupon usage, and shopping at discount stores. We estimate that the returns to these shopping activities declined during the recession and therefore this behavior implies a significant decrease in households' opportunity cost of time. Using the estimated cost of time and time use data, we estimate a high elasticity of substitution between market expenditure and time spent on non-market work. We find that households smooth a sizable fraction of consumption by varying their time allocation during recessions.

Notes:

Print version record

July 2015.