Valuation of leisure time of non-work days

Abstract

This paper estimates empirically the value of leisu re time of weekend non-work days by a resource allocation model. After pointing out a techn ical problem in estimating a resource allocation model with an additive separable utility funct ion, we develop a discrete-continuous model in the context of individual’s time and cost alloca tion to two types of discretionary activities, out-of-home leisure activity and in-home leisure ac tivity. We apply it to two individual activity diary surveys collected in the cities of Tokyo, Jap an and Karlsruhe, Germany. We empirically valuate the values of leisure time of two cities ba sed on the estimated parameters. The results show that the value of out-of-home leisure time is nearly equal to the wage rate in both cities while the value in-home leisure time is about 84 % in Tokyo and 45 % in Karlsruhe of the wage rate respectively.