Health Status and the Allocation of Time

We consider the relationship between health and time allocation in the American Time Use Survey. Better health is associated with large positive effects on home production and larger positive effects on market production, but less consumption of leisure. Theoretically, if market- and home-produced goods are perfect substitutes, the positive correlation between health and home production implies that health exerts larger effects on home than on market efficiency. Notably, these correlations are higher for single people than for married people, perhaps reflecting a lack of market substitutes for the time of married people.