Non-Work at Work, Unemployment and Labor Productivity

By:	Burda, Michael C ; Genadek, Katie R. ; Hamermesh, Daniel S.
We use the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) 2003-2012 to estimate time spent in non-work on the job. Non-work is substantial and varies positively with local unemployment. Time spent in non-work conditional on any positive amount rises, while the fraction of workers reporting positive values declines with unemployment. Both effects are economically important, and are consistent with a model in which heterogeneous workers are paid efficiency wages. That model correctly predicts the relationship between the incidence of non-work and unemployment benefits in state data linked to the ATUS, and is consistent with estimated occupational differences in non-work incidence and intensity, as well as the cyclical behavior of aggregate labor productivity.
Keywords:	efficiency wages; labor productivity; non-work; time use
JEL:	E24 J22
URL:	http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12087&r=ltv