Cues For Timing and Coordination: Latitude, Letterman, and Longitude. Daniel S. Hamermesh, Caitlin Knowles Myers, Mark L. Pocock. Journal of Labor Economics, 2008, vol. 26, no. 2, page 223–246. 0734-306X / 2008/2602-0001. doi: 10.1086 / 525027.

 

 

Abstract. Daylight, television schedules, and time zones can alter timing and induce temporal coordination of economic activities. With the American Time Use Survey for 2003–2004 and data from Australia for 1992, we show that television schedules and the locations of time zones affect the timing of market work and sleep, with differences in timing being generated partly by returns to coordination with other agents. The responsiveness to time zone differences is greatest among workers in industries in national markets. An exogenous shock resulting from an area’s nonadherence to daylight saving time leads its residents to alter work schedules to coordinate with people elsewhere.

 

From the Introduction. Coordination is central to economic behavior. The production of goods and services typically requires the services of complementary inputs, including services of workers of different types. Firms often cooperate with othersa in order to maximize their joint profits. Generating satisfaction in the household requires purchasing goods and using one’s own time and the purchased services of others to create a commodity that yields utility (Becker 1965). Coordination also underlies policies, as policy makers must take into account the interdependence of their choices. The study of these various types of coordination of the amounts of consumer goods and producer inputs has formed the basis for much of microeconomic theory, and testing them and inferring the values of the parameters describing parts of the theories has occupied a substantial proportion of empirical economists’ time for at least half a century.

 

Using capital alone from midnight to noon and labor alone from noon to midnight will lead to much less (zero?) output than if both are utilized in the same 12 hours of the day, and production will probably be higher if workers of different types are on the job at the same time than if each one works at different times. Firms that cooperate do so in a time dimension, and the extent of the temporal coordination has macroeconomic implications (Cooper 1999). For most people the services of an automobile are more valuable if they are combined with the simultaneous inputs of drivers’ and passengers’ time when the auto is on hand, and the utility gained by the people involved is usually higher if enjoyed simultaneously. Despite the importance of when agents engage in various activities, there has been remarkably little empirical study of the temporal nature of activities and even less of temporal patterns of coordination. Cooper and Haltiwanger (1993) demonstrated how government policies can induce firms to undertake decisions about product design at the same time.

 

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