Household consumption and home production at retirement in Thailand: evidence from a regression discontinuity approach

This paper uses Socio-Economic Surveys covering the period from 2013 to 2019 and the 2015 Time Use Survey to investigate the extent to which household consumption changes at retirement in Thailand. A fuzzy regression discontinuity design is applied to evaluate the retirement effect on total household expenditure and expenditures on four major categories: food-at-home, work-related items, non-durable entertainment, and others. The results reveal that retirement decreases household expenditure by 11%. Further investigations show that the dramatic declines in expenditures on work-related and non-durable entertainment contribute significantly to the spending drop at retirement. The magnitudes of the declines are more pronounced for low-income and low-wealth households. The results also indicate that the retirees spend more leisure time on home production activities after retirement. Once accounting for this effect, it finds that the drop in total household expenditure decreases to 6%. These results suggest that the sizable consumption expenditure drop at retirement is due to substituting away from market purchased goods toward home-produced goods.

Racial Differences in Time at Work Not Working

Racial differences in effort at work, if they exist, can potentially explain race-based wage/earnings disparities in the labor market. The authors estimate specifications of time spent on non-work activities at work by Black and White males and females with data from the American Time Use Survey. Estimates reveal that trivially small differences occur between non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White males in time spent not working while on the job that disappear entirely when correcting for non-response errors. The findings imply that Black–White male differences in the fraction of the workday spent not working are either not large enough to partially explain the Black–White wage gap, or simply do not exist at all.

Time Reallocation and the Cost and Benefit of School Closures during an Epidemic

School closures are an important public health intervention during epidemics. Yet, the existing estimates of policy costs and benefits overlook the impact of human behavior and labor market conditions. We use an integrated assessment framework to quantify the public health benefits and the economic costs of school closures based on activity patterns derived from the American Time-Use Survey (ATUS) for a pandemic like COVID-19. We develop a policy decision framework based on marginal benefits and costs to estimate the optimal school closure duration. The results suggest that the optimal school closure depends on how people reallocate their time when schools are closed. Widespread social distancing behavior implemented early and for a long duration can delay the epidemic for years, buying time for the development of pharmaceutical interventions and yielding substantial net benefits. Conversely, school closure, with behavior targeted to adjust only to the school closure, is unlikely to provide substantial delay or sufficient net benefits to justify closing schools for pathogen control.

Working at home and outside: Working conditions and non-working hours

In the presence of anti-epidemic restrictions, telework has become widespread around the world. This trend has provoked numerous debates on how efficient and convenient work from home is compared to that performed on special premises. However, work from home is not the only non-standard form of work activity. This study explores different types of workplace — locations and premises where workers perform their duties. Empirical analysis exploits microdata from “The time use survey” conducted by the Russian Statistical Agency in 2019. The survey identifies six types of work: on standard premises (offices or shop-floors), telework, homebased work, work performed in special facility (like kiosks, pavilions, gas filling stations, garages, etc.), in open air facilities (like construction sites or agricultural fields), or transportation/delivery services. These types of workplace differ in terms of employment and working conditions, work safety and commuting time, potentially contributing to social stratification. Thus, heterogeneity in “workplaces” contributes to social stratification, affects distribution of economic benefits and health risks and can be an additional measure of labor market inequality.

Working at home and outside: Working conditions and non-working hours

In the presence of anti-epidemic restrictions, telework has become widespread around the world. This trend has provoked numerous debates on how efficient and convenient work from home is compared to that performed on special premises. However, work from home is not the only non-standard form of work activity. This study explores different types of workplace — locations and premises where workers perform their duties. Empirical analysis exploits microdata from “The time use survey” conducted by the Russian Statistical Agency in 2019. The survey identifies six types of work: on standard premises (offices or shop-floors), telework, homebased work, work performed in special facility (like kiosks, pavilions, gas filling stations, garages, etc.), in open air facilities (like construction sites or agricultural fields), or transportation/delivery services. These types of workplace differ in terms of employment and working conditions, work safety and commuting time, potentially contributing to social stratification. Thus, heterogeneity in “workplaces” contributes to social stratification, affects distribution of economic benefits and health risks and can be an additional measure of labor market inequality.

Active Fathers in the United States: Caught Between De-Gendering Care and Caring Masculinities

The United States occupies a unique position among OECD countries because the US provides little policy support for working parents. Despite the resulting extreme time scarcity, US fathers perform similar amounts of child care as European fathers under more family-friendly policy conditions. Using recent national time use survey data, this paper examines whether time scarcity among American working parents, coupled with limited access to affordable child care and traditional masculine identity ideas, is associated with American fathers’ involvement in the daily care of their young children. Results show that fathers do one third of all care activities, contribute one third of the care time, and perform over one half of the 10 activities analyzed here daily. Multivariate analysis indicates that time scarcity, lack of alternative child care options, and traditional masculine identity affect the degree of fathers’ involvement in daily care activities with their under five year olds. Implications for the development of caring masculinities are discussed.

Who Works When? The Case of South Korea

Although Korea’s long working hours are well-known, the work schedules of individuals with different socioeconomic characteristics have not been studied. This paper examines the timing of paid work and socioeconomic characteristics associated with work schedules in Korea. Using data from the Korean Time Use Survey (KTUS) 2014 and based on the analysis of employed people aged from 19 to 64, we found that a higher proportion of men work every hour of the day as compared to women. Women tend to start work late in the day, but a similar proportion of women and men work in the afternoon and evening. About 5 % work during non-standard hours, such as in the evening, at night, and in the early morning, and this percentage increases on the weekends. As in previous literature, divorced men and women or single women tend to work more during non-standard hours during weekdays and weekends. Both occupation and employment status are related to working non-standard hours, showing that women in service sectors and working as an unpaid employee at the family business, and men working in manual labor are more likely than people in other occupations to work during non-standard hours or weekends.