The ability to examine different patterns in time use over four decades hinges critically on
the quality of data within each of the time‐use surveys. Specifically, we want to ensure that any
trends we perceive in the time‐use data sets are due to actual changes in behavior and not the
result of differences in measurement or sample composition across the time‐use surveys. We thus
benchmark one time‐use category from the time‐use surveys to the same time‐use category
reported from another (more traditional) survey. This task is made easier by the fact that