Working Paper

Home Production and Leisure During the COVID-19 Recession

Abstract: Between the months of February and April of 2020, average weekly market hours dropped by 6.25, meanwhile 35% of commuting workers reported switching to remote work arrangements. In this paper, we examine implications of these changes for the time allocation of different households, and on aggregate. We estimate that home production activity increased by 2.1 hours a week, or 34% of lost market hours, whereas leisure activity increased by 3.8 hours a week. The monthly value of home production increased by $30.83 billion – that is 10.5% of the concurrent $292.61 billion drop in monthly GDP. Although market hours declined the most for single, less educated individuals, the lost market hours were absorbed into home production the most by married individuals with children.

Keywords: Shutdown; pandemic; remote work; home production; COVID-19;

JEL Classification: D13; E32; J22;

https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2020.025

Status: Published in The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Part of Series: Working Papers

Publication Date: 2020-08-10

Number: 2020-025

Note: Publisher DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bejm-2020-0271