Seminario 14/25 – F.Alcalá (UMU): Time to Consume, Consumption Quality and Hours Worked

Información

ABSTRACT:
The quality dimension of consumption plays a distinctive and important role in many economic areas. This paper provides a new approach to the demand for quality building from the fact that consumption has to be combined with time to produce utility. Focusing on the implications of this approach on the labor supply, the paper shows that the long run number of hours worked crucially depends on the opportunities for upgrading the quality and diversity of consumption. The analysis can provide a unifying explanation of important facts of the labor supply, such as the weakness of the reduction in hours worked along the XXth century, the industrious revolution and the long hours worked by professionals in large urban agglomerations.