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  5. Labor Supply and Entertainment Innovations: Evidence From the U.S. TV Rollout

American Economic Journal:
Applied Economics

ISSN 1945-7782 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7790 (Online)

Labor Supply and Entertainment Innovations: Evidence From the U.S. TV Rollout

  • George Fenton
  • Felix Koenig
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics (Forthcoming)

Abstract

We study the impact of entertainment technology on labor supply. Using Social Security work histories and a natural experiment arising from the regulated U.S. rollout of television, we estimate that a station launch reduced the probability of working by around 0.3 percentage points, driven mainly by an increase in retirement rates among older age groups. The results support the hypothesis that the rise of television contributed to the mid-century transition of retirement from a necessity to “golden years” of enjoyment. Our findings indicate that entertainment innovations have a less pronounced effect on overall labor supply trends than model calibrations in previous literature suggest.

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