WEEKLY EMPLOYEE HOURS, WEEKS WORKED AND INTERTEMPORAL SUBSTITUTION

We show that the representative consumer model fits the aggregate cons umption and employment data well if a choice of work is allowed both a t the intensive and extensive margins. The structural preference param eters recovered from the estimation of the Euler equations of the mode l are economically meaningful and the null hypothesis of the overident ifying restrictions implied by our model is far from being rejected. W e find that the shares in preferences associated with leisure time in the weeks off and in the workweeks are quite large and about equal. Ou r estimates also uncover relatively large intertemporal substitution e lasticities. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.