IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17664.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Luxuries, Necessities, and the Allocation of Time

Author

Listed:
  • Fang, Lei

    (Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta)

  • Hannusch, Anne

    (University of Bonn)

  • Silos, Pedro

    (Temple University)

Abstract

We study consumption and welfare inequality by analyzing how households allocate resources—market expenditures and the value of time—to the production of activities. The share of resources allocated to an activity rises or falls with wages, classifying them into luxuries or necessities, respectively. An estimated model with non-homothetic preferences shows that the rise in consumption inequality between 2004 and 2019 was mostly due to an increase in wage dispersion, while rising prices, especially of leisure luxuries, had a significant negative effect on inequality. The distinction between luxuries and necessities amplifies the counteracting effects of wage and price on inequality.

Suggested Citation

  • Fang, Lei & Hannusch, Anne & Silos, Pedro, 2025. "Luxuries, Necessities, and the Allocation of Time," IZA Discussion Papers 17664, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17664
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17664.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Job Boerma & Loukas Karabarbounis, 2021. "Inferring Inequality With Home Production," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(5), pages 2517-2556, September.
    2. Dirk Krueger & Fabrizio Perri, 2006. "Does Income Inequality Lead to Consumption Inequality? Evidence and Theory -super-1," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 73(1), pages 163-193.
    3. L. Rachel Ngai & Christopher A. Pissarides, 2011. "Taxes, Social Subsidies, and the Allocation of Work Time," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 1-26, October.
    4. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst & Loukas Karabarbounis, 2012. "Recent Developments in the Economics of Time Use," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 373-397, July.
    5. Fang, Lei & Zhu, Guozhong, 2017. "Time allocation and home production technology," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 88-101.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Lei Fang & Anne Hannusch & Pedro Silos, 2021. "Luxuries, Necessities, and the Allocation of Time," DETU Working Papers 2102, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    2. Lei Fang & Anne Hannusch & Pedro Silos, 2020. "Bundling Time and Goods: Implications for Hours Dispersion," DETU Working Papers 2003, Department of Economics, Temple University.
    3. Robert Duval‐Hernández & Lei Fang & L. Rachel Ngai, 2023. "Taxes, subsidies and gender gaps in hours and wages," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(358), pages 373-408, April.
    4. Timo Boppart & L. Rachel Ngai, 2021. "Rising inequality and trends in leisure," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 153-185, June.
    5. Fabio Cerina & Alessio Moro & Michelle Rendall, 2021. "The Role Of Gender In Employment Polarization," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 62(4), pages 1655-1691, November.
    6. Boerma, Job & Karabarbounis, Loukas, 2020. "Labor market trends and the changing value of time," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    7. Fang, Lei & Yang, Fang, 2022. "Consumption and hours in the United States and Europe," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    8. Robert Duval-Hernandez & Lei Fang & L. Rachel Ngai, 2017. "Taxes and Market Hours: The Role of Gender and Skill," FRB Atlanta Working Paper 2017-8, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
    9. Pretnar, Nick, 2022. "Measuring Inequality with Consumption Time," MPRA Paper 118168, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Theloudis, Alexandros, 2021. "Consumption inequality across heterogeneous families," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    11. Diane Coyle & Leonard Nakamura, 2022. "Time Use, Productivity, and Household-centric Measurement of Welfare in the Digital Economy," International Productivity Monitor, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, vol. 42, pages 165-186, Spring.
    12. Duernecker, Georg & Herrendorf, Berthold, 2018. "On the allocation of time – A quantitative analysis of the roles of taxes and productivities," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 169-187.
    13. Lei Fang & Anne Hannusch & Pedro Silos, 2019. "Back to Becker: Producing Consumption with Time and Goods," 2019 Meeting Papers 1386, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. Bednar, W.L. & Pretnar, Nick, 2023. "Structural Change with Time to Consume," MPRA Paper 118167, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Matteo Iacoviello, 2008. "Household Debt and Income Inequality, 1963–2003," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 40(5), pages 929-965, August.
    16. Sebastian Dyrda & Marcelo Pedroni, 2015. "Optimal Fiscal Policy in a Model with Uninsurable Idiosyncratic Shocks," Working Papers tecipa-550, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    17. Greg Kaplan, 2012. "Inequality and the life cycle," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 3(3), pages 471-525, November.
    18. Haichao Fan & Xiang Gao, 2017. "Domestic Creditor Rights and External Private Debt," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(606), pages 2410-2440, November.
    19. Grochulski, Borys & Zhang, Yuzhe, 2011. "Optimal risk sharing and borrowing constraints in a continuous-time model with limited commitment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 146(6), pages 2356-2388.
    20. Fatih Guvenen & Burhanettin Kuruscu, 2010. "A Quantitative Analysis of the Evolution of the US Wage Distribution, 1970–2000," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2009, Volume 24, pages 227-276, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    time allocation; consumption expenditures; luxuries; necessities; activity production; inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp17664. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.