What can we learn from time-use data?

Monthly Labor Review

Volumn 122, Issue 8, 1999, Pages 3-6

  Joyce, Mary ^a   Stewart, Jay ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0012154273     PISSN: 00981818     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. See F. Thomas Juster, "Time Use Data: Analytic Framework, Descriptive Findings, and Measurement Issues," Paper prepared for the Workshop on Measurement of and Research on Time Use, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, May 1999.
2. See the article by Linda Stinson elsewhere in this issue for a detailed description of various activity classification systems that have been used to capture the ways in which people spend their time.
3. See United Nations, Platform for Action, Report from the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, United Nations, September 1995), also on the Internet at www.undp.org/fwcw/dawoff.htm
4. The third person criterion is the most general criterion used to distinguish unpaid work from personal activities. However, Statistics Canada and International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women have developed other criteria that are used to qualify the third person criterion. See Statistics Canada, "Household' Unpaid Work: Measurement and Valuation," Catalogue No. 13-603E. No 3 occasional (Ottawa, Statistics Canada, 1995); and International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, "Measurement and Valuation of Unpaid Contribution: Accounting through Time and Output" (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1995)
5. The third person criterion is the most general criterion used to distinguish unpaid work from personal activities. However, Statistics Canada and International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women have developed other criteria that are used to qualify the third person criterion. See Statistics Canada, "Household' Unpaid Work: Measurement and Valuation," Catalogue No. 13-603E. No 3 occasional (Ottawa, Statistics Canada, 1995); and International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women, "Measurement and Valuation of Unpaid Contribution: Accounting through Time and Output" (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1995)
6. Duncan Ironmonger argues for the construction of national household accounts that would be completely separate but analogous to the national income and product accounts (which he would believes should be renamed the national market accounts). These accounts would not only measure outputs from household production but also households use of labor, capital, and intermediate materials. In order to construct such accounts, he argues, three types of household surveys are essential: household time-use surveys, household expenditure surveys, and household output surveys. According to Ironmonger, the latter has not been done by any national statistical office. See Duncan Ironmonger, "National Accounts of Household Productive Activities," Paper prepared for the Conference on Time Use, Non-Market Work, and Family Well-Being, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the MacArthur Foundation, Washington. November 1997.
7. See Luisella Goldschmidt-Clermom, "Monetary Valuation of Non-Market Productive Time: Methodological Considerations," Review of Income and Wealth, series 39, no. 4, pp. 419-434; Chris Jackson, "The Valuation of Unpaid Work - A Canadian Perspective," Paper prepared for the Conference on Time Use, Non-Market Work, and Family Well-Being, November 1997; and Steven Landefeld and Stephanie Howell, "Accounting for Nonmarketed Household Production within a National Accounts Framework," mimeo. April 1999.
8. See Luisella Goldschmidt-Clermom, "Monetary Valuation of Non-Market Productive Time: Methodological Considerations," Review of Income and Wealth, series 39, no. 4, pp. 419-434; Chris Jackson, "The Valuation of Unpaid Work - A Canadian Perspective," Paper prepared for the Conference on Time Use, Non-Market Work, and Family Well-Being, November 1997; and Steven Landefeld and Stephanie Howell, "Accounting for Nonmarketed Household Production within a National Accounts Framework," mimeo. April 1999.
9. See Luisella Goldschmidt-Clermom, "Monetary Valuation of Non-Market Productive Time: Methodological Considerations," Review of Income and Wealth, series 39, no. 4, pp. 419-434; Chris Jackson, "The Valuation of Unpaid Work - A Canadian Perspective," Paper prepared for the Conference on Time Use, Non-Market Work, and Family Well-Being, November 1997; and Steven Landefeld and Stephanie Howell, "Accounting for Nonmarketed Household Production within a National Accounts Framework," mimeo. April 1999.
10. See Katharine Abraham, James Spletzer, and Jay Stewart, "Divergent Trends in Alternative Wage Series," in John Haltiwanger, Marilyn Manser, and Robert Topel, eds., Labor Statistics Measurement Issues (Chicago, University of Chicago Press 1998); and John Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey, Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time (University Park, PA, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997). Note that the levels of the two measures are expected to differ because they measure different concepts (hours worked in the CPS and hours paid in CES). However, this should not affect the trends.
11. See Katharine Abraham, James Spletzer, and Jay Stewart, "Divergent Trends in Alternative Wage Series," in John Haltiwanger, Marilyn Manser, and Robert Topel, eds., Labor Statistics Measurement Issues (Chicago, University of Chicago Press 1998); and John Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey, Time for Life: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time (University Park, PA, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997). Note that the levels of the two measures are expected to differ because they measure different concepts (hours worked in the CPS and hours paid in CES). However, this should not affect the trends.
12. See John Robinson and Ann Bostrom, "The overestimated workweek? What time diary measures suggest," Monthly Labor Review, August 1994, pp. 11-23.
13. See Jerry A. Jacobs, "Measuring time at work: are self-reports accurate?" Monthly Labor Review, December 1998, pp. 42-53.
14. There are two drawbacks to using time-use data to verify CPS hours, however. First, time use is measured during one 24-hour period, so that comparisons would only be made possible by constructing synthetic workweeks. Second, the effect of proxy reporting in the CPS, which may account for some of differences between household labor force information and time diary data, could not be determined.