Do working hours affect artistic and cultural participation? Evidence from Korea considering cultural genre and skill level

Abstract

This paper explores how working hours influence cultural consumption in Seoul, Korea. Using the zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model, we investigate how working time affects cultural consumption and how this effect differs by cultural genre. Considering white-collar-worker data from the Seoul Institute’s 2019 Seoul Survey, we distinguished two skill-level groups to investigate how social status influences cultural consumption within time constraints. First, cultural consumption decreases when working hours increase. However, when dividing cultural genres into fine arts and popular culture, fine art participation increases with overtime work. Second, cultural consumption considering time restrictions is more pronounced in low-skilled groups, whose cultural consumption decreases when working hours increase but increases with overtime in highly skilled groups. Even under time pressures, highly skilled workers participate more in both cultural genres, supporting Peterson’s omnivorousness theory. This study provides an analytical basis for differentiating support policies according to cultural genres and occupation groups.