How to Think about Time-Use Data: What Inferences Can We Make about Long- and Short-Run Time Use from Time Diaries?

Abstract Background and Objectives The diminished wellbeing of caregivers is well documented, but studies typically draw upon coarse measures of time use and thus provide limited understanding of the role of specific care activities in the daily lives of care providers. This study uses time diary data to explore whether there are signature care patterns throughout the day and whether these care patterns have implications for caregivers’ experienced wellbeing. Research Design and Methods Using a national sample of 511 time diaries from older caregivers in the Disability and Use of Time supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we examine minutes of care provided on the prior day, overall and for four broad care categories (household, personal care, transportation, and visiting), and patterns of care over the day, the latter based on sequence and cluster analysis. Results Older caregivers spend on average 2.3 hr providing care to another adult on care days. Caregiving follows a roller-coaster pattern over the day, peaking at mealtimes. Sequence analysis suggests five distinctive caregiving patterns, which vary by both demographic characteristics of the caregiver (gender, work status) and care arrangement type (relationship to recipient, whether sole caregiver to recipient). The 40% who provide only marginal assistance of about 1 hr report lower experienced wellbeing than the 28% who provide sporadic assistance with a mix of activities for about 2 hr. Discussion and Implications A substantial share of older caregivers provides only 1 hr of assistance on a given day but appears to be at risk for reduced wellbeing. Better understanding of the reason for their marginal involvement and reduced wellbeing is warranted.

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Data Watch The American Time Use Survey

The Journal of Economic Perspectives ◽

10.1257/0895330053148029 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 221-232 ◽

Cited By ~ 71

Author(s):

Daniel S Hamermesh ◽

Harley Frazis ◽

Jay Stewart

Keyword(s):

Time Use ◽

National Income ◽

Household Survey ◽

Economic Research ◽

First Year ◽

American Time Use Survey ◽

National Income Accounting ◽

Time Use Survey ◽

Time Diaries ◽

Income Accounting

We discuss the new American Time Use Survey (ATUS), an on-going household survey of roughly 1,200 Americans per month (1,800 per month in the first year, 2003) that collects time diaries as well as demographic interview information from respondents who had recently been in the Current Population Survey. The characteristics of the data are presented, as are caveats and concerns that one might have about them. A number of novel uses of the ATUS in economic research, including in the areas of macroeconomics, national income accounting, labor economics, and others, are proposed to illustrate the magnitude of this new survey's possible applications.

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Excise Taxes with Multiproduct Transactions

The American Economic Review ◽

10.1257/aer.99.1.458 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 99 (1) ◽

pp. 458-471 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

Stephen F Hamilton

Keyword(s):

Product Variety ◽

Excise Taxes ◽

Time Horizons ◽

Long Run ◽

Wide Range ◽

Short Run ◽

Run Time ◽

Ad Valorem

I examine excise taxes levied on multiproduct retailers. Excise taxes reduce equilibrium output and decrease equilibrium product variety in the short run, but taxes can raise output per product in the long run and induce entry. Excise taxes are overshifted into prices in a wide range of cases, including under linear and concave demand conditions, and excise taxes shift less than one-for-one into prices only when demand is highly convex. Multiproduct transactions substantively alter the efficiency of ad valorem and specific forms of excise taxes and affect the comparison of relative tax performance over short-run and long-run time horizons. (JEL H25, H32, L11, L13, L81)

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Mode Effects on Data Quality and Measurement in a Mixed-Mode Time-Use Survey

10.31235/osf.io/7kypq ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Stella Chatzitheochari ◽

Elena Mylona

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Data Quality ◽

Time Use ◽

Mixed Mode ◽

Large Scale ◽

New Technologies ◽

Quality Data ◽

Mode Effects ◽

Time Use Survey ◽

Time Diaries

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in the use of new technologies for time-use data collection, driven by their potential to reduce survey administration costs and improve data quality. However, despite the steady growth of studies that employ web and app time diaries, there is little research on their comparability with traditional paper-administered diaries that have long been regarded as the “gold standard” for measurement in time-use research. This paper rectifies this omission by investigating diary mode effects on data quality and measurement, drawing on data from a mixed-mode large-scale time diary study of adolescents in the United Kingdom. After controlling for selection effects, we find that web and app diaries yield higher quality data than paper diaries, which attests to the potential of new technologies in facilitating diary completion. At the same time, our analysis of broad time-use domains does not find substantial mode effects on measurement for the majority of daily activity categories. We conclude by discussing avenues for future methodological research and implications for time-use data collection.

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The Family Costs of Looking After Handicapped Elderly Relatives

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x00010643 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 4 (2) ◽

pp. 185-204 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Muriel Nissel

Keyword(s):

Pilot Study ◽

Time Use ◽

Paid Work ◽

Small Pilot Study ◽

Financial Costs ◽

The Family ◽

Time Diaries ◽

Measurement And Evaluation ◽

The Cost

ABSTRACTThis article is principally concerned with the measurement and evaluation of the cost of the time which families devote to the care of handicapped elderly relatives living with them. One way of measuring the contribution is by means of time diaries which document the amount of time given to caring activities throughout the 24 hours of the day. How this was done in a small pilot study, carried out in Oxfordshire, England, is described. It is preceded by a brief general discussion of some of the factors which determine time use and by a description of the empirical findings from a few of the existing surveys. Some broad estimates of the indirect financial costs involved are offered, including an estimate using a different approach based on the loss of opportunity suffered by women who are prevented from undertaking paid work.

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The MAIS Approach to Web Service Design

Advances in Database Research - Advanced Topics in Database Research, Volume 5 ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-935-9.ch011 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 187-204

Author(s):

Marzia Adorni ◽

Francesca Arcelli ◽

Carlo Batini ◽

Marco Comerio ◽

Flavio De Paoli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life Cycle ◽

Service Life ◽

Time Use ◽

Service Management ◽

Methodological Approach ◽

Value Added ◽

A Value ◽

Value Added Service ◽

Run Time ◽

Service Life Cycle

This chapter presents a first attempt to realize a methodological framework supporting the most relevant phases of the design of a value-added service. A value-added service is defined as a functionality of an adaptive and multichannel information system obtained by composing services offered by different providers. The framework has been developed as part of the multichannel adaptive information systems (MAIS) project. The MAIS framework focuses on the following phases of service life cycle: requirements analysis, design, deployment, and run-time use and negotiation. In the first phase, the designer elicits, validates, and negotiates service requirements according to social and business goals. The design phase is in charge of modeling services with an enhanced version of UML, augmented with new features developed within the MAIS project. The deployment phase considers the network infrastructure and, in particular, provides an approach to implement and coordinate the execution of services from different providers. In the run-time use and negotiation phase, the MAIS methodology provides support to the optimal selection and quality renegotiation of services and to the dynamic evaluation of management costs. The chapter describes the MAIS methodological tools available for different phases of service life cycle and discusses the main guidelines driving the implementation of a service management architecture called reflective architecture that complies with the MAIS methodological approach.

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