David Colander's update/reworking of his 1987 volume draws conclusions about graduate study in economics from interviews with students in selected leading U.S. programs. Although not formally statistical, the interviews support the conclusion that most of the core of graduate instruction (except macro) is handled very well. Colander's concern about the lack of attention to training teachers is well founded. His conclusion that fewer idiots savants are being trained than in the 1980s is overly optimistic, and his worry about stresses that graduate students express is misplaced.

Economists have devoted substantial attention to firms' supply of variety, but little to consumers' demand for variety. Employing the framework of home production, we trace differences in demand to differences in the opportunity costs of activities, associated with investments in human capital. Schooling alters time costs and changes the variety of activities household members choose. Time budgets from Australia, Israel, and West Germany show that higher own and spouses' incomes raise variety (suggesting positive income effects). Education increases variety independent of income and earnings; part of its impact goes beyond a correlation of educational attainment with preferences for variety.

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 the timing of market work and sleep, with differences in timing being 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 nonadherence to daylight saving time leads its residents to alter work schedules to coordinate with people elsewhere.