Household time use behavior analysis: a case study of multidimensional timing decisions

This chapter investigates household time use behavior by especially focusing on timing decisions on interdependent daily activities. Timing decisions on various life choices have been unsatisfactorily presented in literature. At best, such timing decisions have been presented based on survival analysis, which has various attractive statistical features, however, ignores decision-making mechanisms. This chapter argues that the utility of activity participation and trip-making behavior changes over time, and timing decisions within a given period of time interact across activities/trips and across household members. This study derives the optimal timing functions for both nonshared and shared activities/trips by different household members, where interdependencies among activities/trips over time and household’s coupling constraints are endogenously represented. The applicability of the developed model is empirically examined. Behavioral implications of analysis results are finally discussed.