TY  - JOUR
AU  - Burda,Michael C.
AU  - Hamermesh,Daniel S.
AU  - Stewart,Jay
TI  - Cyclical Variation in Labor Hours and Productivity                                            Using the ATUS
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 18603
PY  - 2012
Y2  - December 2012
DO  - 10.3386/w18603
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18603
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w18603.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Michael Burda
Faculty of Business and Economics
Humboldt University Berlin
Spandauer Str. 1
D-10178 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail: burda@wiwi.hu-berlin.de

Daniel S. Hamermesh
Department of Economics
Royal Holloway University of London
Egham, TW20 0EX
UNITED KINGDOM
Tel: 44 1784 276 394
E-Mail: Daniel.Hamermesh@rhul.ac.uk

Jay Stewart
Bureau of Labor Statistics
2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC  20212-0002
Tel: 202-691-7376
E-Mail: Stewart.Jay@bls.gov
AB  - We examine monthly variation in weekly work hours using data for 2003-10 from the Current Population Survey (CPS) on hours/worker, from the Current Employment Survey (CES) on hours/job, and from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) on both.  The ATUS data minimize recall difficulties and constrain hours of work to accord with total available time.  The ATUS hours/worker are less cyclical than the CPS series, but the hours/job are more cyclical than the CES series.  We present alternative estimates of productivity based on ATUS data and find that it is more pro-cyclical than other productivity measures.
ER  -