AUDIO

Recent research shows that income inequality is increasing in the United States--particularly between well-educated and less-educated American workers. But income is not the sole measure of prosperity. We also value the time we spend off the clock. Therefore, the amount of leisure time Americans have is also crucial to our understanding of American well-being.

Has leisure time, for the average American, increased or decreased over the last several decades? Does it vary across groups with different education levels? To what extent do education, employment rates, or other alternative explanations account for these differences? How much can be attributed to sheer preference for leisure? In The Increase in Leisure Inequality, 1965-2005 (AEI Press, 2009), Professors Mark Aguiar of the University of Rochester and Erik Hurst of the University of Chicago use data spanning forty years and tens of thousands of survey respondents to examine trends in leisure inequality. Rather than just equating income to well-being, the authors offer a more complete picture of American well-being than would have been obtained by measuring income inequality alone.

At this event, Professor Aguiar will discuss the important implications of his findings for American employment and welfare policy. He will be joined by Nicholas Eberstadt, the Henry Wendt Scholar in Political Economy at AEI, and Jay Stewart of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. AEI's Henry Olsen will moderate.