Curriculum The Economics of Time
The Economics of Time
Time is the one resource everyone has in equal measure and nobody can store. How economists value it, how Indians spend it, time poverty, queues, paying to save time, Keynes's missing 15-hour week, the speed premium, time zones, government time taxes and whether technology really saves time.
- Time: The Ultimate Scarce Resource Why time is the scarcest resource of all, how Gary Becker brought time into economics, and why every choice has a time cost. 📄 Read-aloud
- How Economists Put a Price on Time How the value of time is estimated using wages and people's choices, and why it matters for decisions like building roads and metros. 📄 Read-aloud
- How Indians Spend Their Day What India's Time Use Surveys reveal about paid work, unpaid work, leisure and gender gaps. 📄 Read-aloud
- Time Poverty What it means to be time-poor, why poor households and women often lack free time, and how services like piped water and clean cooking fuel give time back. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Economics of Queues Why queues form when prices are below market levels, how waiting acts as a hidden price, and how systems like tokens and online booking change the cost of waiting. 📄 Read-aloud
- Buying Back Time How rising incomes create demand for time-saving services like food delivery, cleaning help and ready meals, and what research says about spending to save time and happiness. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Economics of Time: Checkpoint 1 Quick checkpoint - five questions on time as a resource, valuing time, time use, time poverty and queues. 5 questions
- Why Didn't We Get the 15-Hour Week? Why Keynes predicted people would work only 15 hours a week by 2030, why that hasn't happened, and what it tells us about wants and work. 📄 Read-aloud
- Paying for Speed How businesses charge extra for speed - express delivery, tatkal tickets and fast-track services - and why this is a form of price discrimination by time value. 📄 Read-aloud
- Time Zones and the Economics of Clocks Why India has a single time zone, why some argue for two, and how clock time affects productivity, sleep and energy use. 📄 Read-aloud
- Time Taxes: Paperwork and Waiting How complicated government processes impose "time taxes" on citizens, why these fall hardest on the poor, and how digital services reduce them. 📄 Read-aloud
- Does Technology Save Time? How appliances like washing machines freed household time, why some technologies don't save as much time as expected, and how smartphones changed time use. 📄 Read-aloud
- The Economics of Time: Recap Practical lessons for valuing and managing your own time, and a summary of the module. 📄 Read-aloud