They investigated the hypothesis that families buffer the short-run negative impact of macroeconomic shocks by reallocating family members' time, primarily from other activities into market work. Levison's work also has a methodological branch. This research, undertaken with Rachel Connelly, Deborah DeGraff and Brian McCall , broaches an important question about the estimation of models of household time and resource allocation and challenges the conventional wisdom about the correct statistical methodology to use with these models. Though superficially somewhat arcane, the results of this work have broad ramifications for empirical work on employment, education and child care choices. This paper is the first to document large scale patterns of frequent movement in and out of employment by children in a developing country.
Findings have important implications for child labor and education policy.