Labor Supply in the Past, Present, and Future: A Balanced-Growth Perspective

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Boppart, Timo; Krusell, Per
• 署名单位: Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); University of Gothenburg; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/704071
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 118-157
• 关键词: work; elasticities; countries; income; micro; wage

摘要

The absence of a trend in hours worked in the postwar United States is an exception: across countries and historically, hours fall steadily by a little below 0.5% per year. Are steadily falling hours consistent with a stable utility function over consumption and leisure under balanced growth of the macroeconomic aggregates? Yes. We fully characterize the class of such functions and thus generalize the well-known balanced-growth preferences that demand constant (as opposed to falling) long-run hours. Key to falling hours is an income effect (of steady productivity growth on hours) that slightly outweighs the substitution effect.