In this paper, we document trends in the allocation of time over the last 40 years. In
particular, we focus our attention on measuring how leisure time has evolved within the United
States. In commonly used household surveys designed to measure labor market activity (such as
the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID)), the only
category of time use that is consistently measured is market work hours.1 As a result, leisure is
almost universally defined as time spent away from market work. However, as noted by Becker
(1965), households can also allocate time towards production outside the formal market sector.
To the extent that non‐market (home) production is important and changing over time, leisure
time will be poorly proxied by time spent away from market work. By linking five decades of
detailed time‐use surveys, we are able empirically to draw the distinction between leisure and
the complement of market work. In doing so, we document a set of facts about how home
production and leisure have evolved for men and women of differing work status, marital status,
and educational attainment during the last 40 years.