The Value of Non-Work Time in Cross-National Quality of Life Comparisons: The Case of the United States vs. the Netherlands

Abstract

Comparisons of wellbeing between the United States and Western Europe generally show that most Americans have higher standards of living than do Western Europeans at comparable locations in their national income distributions. These comparisons of wellbeing typically privilege disposable income and cash transfers while ignoring other aspects of welfare state and labor market structure that potentially affect the distribution of wellbeing in a society. We argue that non-work time is such a factor. In this empirical exercise involving the United States and the Netherlands, we show that reasonable estimates of the contribution to wellbeing from non-market activities such as the raising of children or longer vacations can overturn claims in the literature that the United States offers greater wellbeing to more of its citizens than do western European countries.