Shopping time

Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau; Etienne Wasmer; Shutian Zeng

doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2016.02.003

Shopping time

Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau, Etienne Wasmer, Shutian Zeng

Economics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	52-60
Number of pages	9
Journal	Economics Letters
Volume	143
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2016.02.003
State	Published - Jun 1 2016

Keywords

American time use survey
Business cycles
Goods market search
Time allocation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Finance
Economics and Econometrics

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10.1016/j.econlet.2016.02.003

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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.",

keywords = "American time use survey, Business cycles, Goods market search, Time allocation",

author = "Nicolas Petrosky-Nadeau and Etienne Wasmer and Shutian Zeng",

note = "Funding Information: Petrosky-Nadeau thanks Stanford{\textquoteright}s Hoover Institution where part of this research was conducted for its support. Etienne Wasmer acknowledges support from ANR-11-LABX-0091 ( LIEPP ), ANR-11-IDEX-0005-02 and ANR 2010 BLANC 1819 01 ( EvalPolPub ). These views are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve System. The authors thank Bob Hall and Elisa Guglielminetti for comments and discussions. We also thank Thomas Brzustowski and Helen Irvin for excellent research assistance. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 Elsevier B.V.",

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PY - 2016/6/1

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N2 - 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.

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Shopping time

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Keywords

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