Department of Economics

This analysis uses time use data as well as employment data to relate and model the effect of state level employment rate (EPR) to an individual’s time spent sleeping. The conclusion is that rises in the EPR are correlated with a drop in time spent sleeping on the order of 1.85 minutes for every 1 percentage increase in the EPR. There is little to no variation among different age groups and sexes, with the exception being black women. These conclusions are in line with previous research which do find that health is countercyclical. This analysis adds to the literature by allowing the EPR’s effect on health to vary across different groups.