Understanding time use: Daily or weekly data?

The appropriate duration of time diaries as a source of time use data is analyzed in a structured way. Nine detailed European surveys based on seven-days diaries are used in order to study different dimensions of data quality, duration and variability of activities, and modeling capabilities. Pseudo diaries of 1, 2 (one week, one weekend) and 3 (one week, both weekend) days are constructed to further analyze these issues, selecting the seven-days diaries data as a benchmark. Comparative results show that two and three-days weighted surveys seem to be an adequate surrogate for the information obtained in weekly surveys that capture a basic work-leisure cycle.