IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03588616.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Shopping Time

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau

    (Tepper School of Business - CMU - Carnegie Mellon University [Pittsburgh])

  • Etienne Wasmer

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Shutian Zeng

Abstract

There is a renewed interest in macroeconomic theories of search frictions in the goods market that help solve quantitative puzzles on amplification and persistence of GDP, sales, inventory and advertisement. This requires a deeper understanding of the cyclical properties of the intensive margins of search in this market. Using the American Time Use Survey we construct an indicator of shopping time. It includes both searching and purchasing goods and is based on 25 time use categories (out of more than 400 categories). We find that average time spent shopping declined in the aggregate over the period 2008–2010 compared to 2005–2007. The decline was largest for the unemployed who went from spending more time shopping for goods than the employed to roughly the same, or even less, time. Cross-state and individual regressions indicate pro-cyclical consumer shopping time in the goods market. This evidence poses a challenge for models in which price comparisons are a driver of business cycles.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau & Etienne Wasmer & Shutian Zeng, 2016. "Shopping Time," Post-Print hal-03588616, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03588616
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2016.02.003
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-03588616
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://sciencespo.hal.science/hal-03588616/document
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2016.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kjetil Storesletten & Jose-Victor Rios Rull & Yan Bai, 2011. "Demand Shocks that Look Like Productivity Shocks," 2011 Meeting Papers 99, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    2. Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau & Etienne Wasmer, 2015. "Macroeconomic Dynamics in a Model of Goods, Labor and Credit Market Frictions," SciencePo Working papers hal-03392977, HAL.
    3. Greg Kaplan & Guido Menzio, 2016. "Shopping Externalities and Self-Fulfilling Unemployment Fluctuations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(3), pages 771-825.
    4. Christian Broda & David E. Weinstein, 2010. "Product Creation and Destruction: Evidence and Price Implications," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 691-723, June.
    5. Diamond, Peter A, 1982. "Aggregate Demand Management in Search Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(5), pages 881-894, October.
    6. Petrosky-Nadeau, Nicolas & Wasmer, Etienne, 2015. "Macroeconomic dynamics in a model of goods, labor, and credit market frictions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 97-113.
    7. Pascal Michaillat & Emmanuel Saez, 2022. "An economical business-cycle model [Breaking through the zero lower bound]," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 74(2), pages 382-411.
    8. Den Haan, Wouter, 2013. "Inventories and the Role of Goods-Market Frictions for Business Cycles," CEPR Discussion Papers 9628, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Greg Kaplan & Guido Menzio, 2016. "Shopping Externalities and Self-Fulfilling Unemployment Fluctuations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(3), pages 771-825.
    10. repec:pri:cepsud:234kaplan is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Robert E. Hall, 2012. "The Cyclical Response of Advertising Refutes Counter-Cyclical Profit Margins in Favor of Product-Market Frictions," NBER Working Papers 18370, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst & Loukas Karabarbounis, 2013. "Time Use during the Great Recession," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(5), pages 1664-1696, August.
    13. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5por5bt92h8l0bc7ls4elmcc0b is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Daniel S. Hamermesh & Harley Frazis & Jay Stewart, 2005. "Data Watch: The American Time Use Survey," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 19(1), pages 221-232, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Petrosky-Nadeau, Nicolas & Wasmer, Etienne, 2015. "Macroeconomic dynamics in a model of goods, labor, and credit market frictions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 97-113.
    2. Brzustowski, Thomas & Petrosky-Nadeau, Nicolas & Wasmer, Etienne, 2018. "Disentangling goods, labor, and credit market frictions in three European economies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 180-196.
    3. Paweł Borys & Paweł Doligalski & Paweł Kopiec, 2018. "Labor market institutions in a shopping economy," NBP Working Papers 275, Narodowy Bank Polski.
    4. Pau Roldan & Sophia Gilbukh, 2017. "Firm Dynamics and Pricing under Customer Capital Accumulation," 2017 Meeting Papers 1235, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/3odkm6d3q58fepe1bcv0u5jjpn is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3odkm6d3q58fepe1bcv0u5jjpn is not listed on IDEAS
    3. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/3odkm6d3q58fepe1bcv0u5jjpn is not listed on IDEAS
    4. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3odkm6d3q58fepe1bcv0u5jjpn is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/2lcqvok1m996m9pb3ctnmerhpq is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3bi2m7jdvh8ft9m3o2c19do3i8 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3bi2m7jdvh8ft9m3o2c19do3i8 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau & Etienne Wasmer & Shutian Zeng, 2015. "Shopping Time," SciencePo Working papers hal-03459840, HAL.
    9. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/2lcqvok1m996m9pb3ctnmerhpq is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Brzustowski, Thomas & Petrosky-Nadeau, Nicolas & Wasmer, Etienne, 2018. "Disentangling goods, labor, and credit market frictions in three European economies," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 180-196.
    11. Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau & Etienne Wasmer, 2016. "The efficiency of surplus sharing," 2016 Meeting Papers 1318, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    12. Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau & Etienne Wasmer & Shutian Zeng, 2016. "Shopping Time," SciencePo Working papers hal-03588616, HAL.
    13. Thomas Brzustowski & Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau & Etienne Wasmer, 2015. "Disentangling goods, labor and credit market frictions in three European economies," SciencePo Working papers hal-03393222, HAL.
    14. Petrosky-Nadeau, Nicolas & Wasmer, Etienne, 2015. "Macroeconomic dynamics in a model of goods, labor, and credit market frictions," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 97-113.
    15. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/798de2mkg4999avs5b2puc2h91 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/798de2mkg4999avs5b2puc2h91 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/7c8vm7kbos9f08oo90oq51cqrp is not listed on IDEAS
    18. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5por5bt92h8l0bc7ls4elmcc0b is not listed on IDEAS
    19. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5por5bt92h8l0bc7ls4elmcc0b is not listed on IDEAS
    20. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/7c8vm7kbos9f08oo90oq51cqrp is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Thomas Brzustowski & Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau & Etienne Wasmer, 2016. "Disentangling Goods, Labor, and Credit Market Frictions in Three European Economies," SciencePo Working papers hal-03567961, HAL.
    22. Luigi Paciello & Andrea Pozzi & Nicholas Trachter, 2019. "Price Dynamics With Customer Markets," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 60(1), pages 413-446, February.
    23. Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau & Etienne Wasmer, 2015. "Macroeconomic Dynamics in a Model of Goods, Labor and Credit Market Frictions," SciencePo Working papers hal-03392977, HAL.
    24. Huo, Zhen, 2016. "Financial Frictions, Asset Prices, and the Great Recession," CEPR Discussion Papers 11544, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    25. Emmanuel Saez & Pascal Michaillat, 2013. "A Theory of Aggregate Supply and Aggregate Demand as Functions of Market Tightness with Prices as Parameters," 2013 Meeting Papers 1216, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    26. Hall, R.E., 2016. "Macroeconomics of Persistent Slumps," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 2131-2181, Elsevier.
    27. Sniekers, F.J.T., 2013. "Endogenous Beveridge cycles and the volatility of unemployment," CeNDEF Working Papers 13-12, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Center for Nonlinear Dynamics in Economics and Finance.
    28. Pascal Michaillat & Emmanuel Saez, 2015. "Aggregate Demand, Idle Time, and Unemployment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 507-569.
    29. Zhen Huo & Jose-Victor Rios-Rull, 2015. "Tightening Financial Frictions on Households, Recessions, and Price Reallocations," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(1), pages 118-139, January.
    30. Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau & Etienne Wasmer & Philippe Weil, 2021. "When Hosios Meets Phillips: Connecting Efficiency and Stability to Demand Shocks," Working Paper Series 2018-13, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    31. Florian Sniekers, 2018. "Persistence And Volatility Of Beveridge Cycles," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 59(2), pages 665-698, May.
    32. Borys, Paweł & Doligalski, Paweł & Kopiec, Paweł, 2021. "The quantitative importance of technology and demand shocks for unemployment fluctuations in a shopping economy," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    33. Paul Beaudry & Dana Galizia & Franck Portier, 2018. "Reconciling Hayek’s and Keynes’ Views of Recessions," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(1), pages 119-156.
    34. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/1787nsa6d1927a90u4bkkombn4 is not listed on IDEAS
    35. Wouter Den Haan, 2014. "Inventories and the Role of Goods-Market Frictions for Business Cycles," Discussion Papers 1402, Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Goods market search; Time allocation; American time use survey; Business cycles;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03588616. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.