This paper analyzes the effectiveness of the tax and transfer systems in the European Union and the US to act as an automatic stabilizer in the current economic crisis. We find that automatic stabilizers absorb 38 per cent of a proportional income shock in the EU, compared to 32 per cent in the...

This paper deals with the impact of electoral competition on politicians' outside earnings. We propose a simple theoretical model with politicians facing a tradeoff between allocating their time to political effort or to an alternative use generating outside earnings. The model has a testable...

The split work shift has been argued as one of the reasons behind the different Spanish time schedule, characterized by reduced sleep and a more difficult work-family balance. This paper presents direct evidence on the effect that being on a split shift has on Spanish workers’ wellbeing and...

The large negative impact of income on time spent online has been attributed to a negative own-price effect created by variation in the opportunity cost of time across internet users. Nonetheless, the coefficient on income could also be capturing a negative income effect: High-income users could...

The empirical classification of leisure activities into luxuries, necessities, or inferior activities is useful for predicting the impact of economic development or life-cycle variations in wages on the organization of people’s leisure. We take a step in that direction. We present theoretical...