Are TV Schedules and Latitudinal Locations the Drivers of Social Norms?

Forthcoming in Labour Economics:

CUES FOR TIMING AND COORDINATION:
LATITUDE, LETTERMAN AND LONGITUDE
Daniel S. Hamermesh, Caitlin Knowles Myers and Mark L. Pocock

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 timing of market work and sleep, with differences in timing 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 non-adherence to daylight saving time leads its residents to alter work schedules to coordinate with people elsewhere.