UM05-18: Market and Non-Market Activities of Older Americans
Researchers
Abstract
This project will examine older Americans’ non-market time allocation using the new American Time Use Survey. It will generate results indicating: 1) How older workers spend time among market work, household production, leisure and personal care (essentially a novel accounting exercise); 2) Patterns and determinants of how otherwise identical retired older Americans allocate their time across these last three categories, and more detailed categories, compared to working older Americans; and 3) Patterns and determinants of timing of activities in these two groups. These will enable one to infer the amount of flexibility in activities and in their timing desired by older people who are unconstrained by market work schedules. It will indicate how market work can be temporally restructured so that the substantial decline in older Americans’ paid work can be sharply reversed and the cost and benefit burdens on the Social Security system eased.
Publications
- Why Not Retire? The Time and Timing Costs of Market Work (Conference Paper)
- Why Not Retire? The Time and Timing Costs of Market Work (Working Paper)
- Why Not Retire? The Time and Timing Costs of Market Work (Research Brief)