Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/111547 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9095
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
Using the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) 2003-12, we estimate time spent by workers in non-work while on the job. Non-work time is substantial and varies positively with the local unemployment rate. While the average time spent by workers in non-work conditional on any positive non-work rises with the unemployment rate, the fraction of workers who report time in non-work varies pro-cyclically, declining in recessions. These results are consistent with a model in which heterogeneous workers are paid efficiency wages to refrain from loafing on the job. That model correctly predicts relationships of the incidence and conditional amounts of non-work with wage rates and measures of unemployment benefits in state data linked to the ATUS, and it is consistent with observed occupational differences in non-work.
Subjects: 
time use
non-work
loafing
shirking
efficiency wage
labor productivity
JEL: 
J22
E24
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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