No Time To Lose? Time Constraints And Physical Activity

Although individuals are all endowed with the same time budgets, time use patterns differ owing to heterogeneity in preferences and constraints. In today's health policy arena there is considerable discussion about how to improve health outcomes by increasing levels of physical activity. In this paper, the authors explore how individuals endowed with different levels of human capital allocate time to physically-demanding activities that they characterize as health-producing behaviors. The data are drawn from multiple years of the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), which are based on daily time use diaries and include information on detailed physical activity time uses.