Reconsidering the effect of work intensity on study time

Abstract

Recent evidence on the impact of youth employment on study time has found only small, negative effects. However, previous estimates may be biased downward due to weak identification and measurement error. In this article, we re-examine the question with more recent data from the American Time Use Survey (2003–11) using a number of alternate estimation techniques. Results show that using a longer time span, state unemployment rates appears to be a stronger instrument for part-time work than was previously found. Depending on the estimation method used, the negative effects of part-time work on study time may be considerably larger than previously thought.

Keywords:

• study time
• part-time work
• time-use data
• homework

JEL Classification:

• J22
• I20