Leisure Preferences Research Articles

FIXED‐WAGES, WAGE DIFFERENTIALS AND WORKER HETEROGENEITIES

We study incentive‐compatible labour contracts in the case where individual productivity, preference for leisure and time preference rate are unobservable by the principal in a two‐period model. We first reduce this three‐dimensional problem to a standard one‐dimensional screening problem. Features of second‐best labour contracts provide a rationale for both fixed‐wages and wage differentials.

Life-Cycle Portfolio Choice with a Realistic Retirement Age Distribution

This paper numerically solves the optimal life-cycle portfolio choice when the model is calibrated to match the empirical retirement age distribution: people tend to retire only starting from their 50s. The model shows that financial incentives for keeping investors in labor force and low leisure preference for young investors endogenously restrict investors from retiring early. Thus, this paper suggests a novel effect of the early retirement option on portfolio choice. As opposed to results from earlier models, the optimal portfolio share of stock does not increase monotonically prior to retirement. Wealthy investors might find it optimal to reduce the stock share in their early stage of life in order to decrease the possibility of having insufficient wealth for retirement when they are older. Thus, the model predicts either an increasing or a hump-shaped pattern for life-cycle stock holding, consistent with empirical observations.

Digital Gaming: A Comparative International Study of Youth Culture in a Peaceful and War Zone Country

This paper reports an exploratory survey in Australia and Israel of the leisure habits, attitudes and preferences of 716 teenagers aged 13-14 years who are part of the international digital games culture. The rationale was threefold: (a) this age group is not singled out in other surveys; (b) examination of gaming across five platforms would contribute new insights; and (c) the premise that a comparison between eGamers in a war zone and a peaceful country would produce striking contrasts. Virtually all participants played digital games for an average of 10-12 hours per week, the majority using all gaming platforms daily. Notable country differences were identified, particularly game genre preferences but there was also commonality as digital gamers. Digital games remain “boys’ games”, with males devoting more time to playing across five game platforms than did the females who, however, demonstrated a narrowing gap. Isolation and unfitness due to digital gaming proved contrary to popular media reports even though playing digital games was one of two top-rated leisure activities across country and gender.

Urban Development and the Leisure Dilemma: A case study of leisure and recreation in urban residential estates in the Lower Hunter, New South Wales

This paper examines the leisure and recreation activities and experiences of people living in urban residential estates in the Lower Hunter, New South Wales. Drawing on data collected in household surveys of residents aged 14 years and over in four residential estates, this paper profiles the respondents themselves, describes their leisure preferences and activities, and explains how they felt about how they experienced the leisure and recreation spaces and settings within, and adjacent to, their residential estates. The findings revealed that although the quantity and quality of recreation resources varied among the estates, some common themes emerged among respondents with respect to their leisure and recreation needs, perceptions, and demand. In particular, substantial numbers of respondents in each estate expressed dissatisfaction with recreation resource provision. There was an expressed need for larger areas of open space and parkland, and better facilities for a wider range of age groups. The authors concluded that leisure and recreation planning for urban residential estates is generally ad hoc and at best standards based, and characterised by the reproduction of familiar but inadequate leisure and play spaces. Supply was not based on sound empirical evidence of who occupies, or will occupy, homes in a particular estate, or of those people's leisure and recreational needs and how these affect equality.

Ethnicity as a Construct in Leisure Research: A Rejoinder to Gobster

Gobster addresses several issues in our paper. These include, first, a suggestion that the measure of cultural values that we used is not appropriate for understanding possible variations in racial and ethnic patterns of' outdoor leisure preferences and behavior. He claims, as well, that we limit our use of ethnicity to alleged cultural differences among groups and, specifically, to cultural values, unlike what most leisure researchers have done. Second, Gobster questions our concern with the use of common racial and ethnic labels because these are part and parcel of the way in which people look at others. Third, grouping people by racial and ethnic labels has often contributed to social justice. Fourth, ethnic groups in the U.S. are growing and what may have been small differences between groups in the past may be magnified in the future due to these demographic shifts. Fifth, research is constrained by resources that limit sampling designs and, therefore, collapsing smaller ethnic and/or racial groups into larger ones may be required for statistical comparisons of adequate power to be made. Sixth, Gobster expresses concern over our use of' cultural consensus analysis, a single method, in claiming that ethnicity may not be a useful concept. This naturally segues to concern over the culture construct itself and its worth in addressing alleged differences in the leisure behavior of nominal racial and ethnic groups. Finally, Gobster mentions the problem with (the low amount of) variance accounted for in studies of leisure participation, a concern that we expressed in our paper. We will deal with each of these issues in turn.

Characteristics of the Work-Leisure Relations in Korea

Based on the meaning of work (MOW) research and the typology of work-leisure relations developed by Wilensky and Parker, this study investigates the relationship between work-leisure orientation and the meaning of work domain variables, including work centrality, work ethic, intrinsic value, extrinsic value, and job satisfaction. The 2006 Korean Value Survey (KVS) dataset was analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance and multinomial logistic regression analysis. The results show that work-oriented respondents have larger value for work centrality variable and smaller value for work ethic than the leisure-oriented. The work-leisure relations for the work centrality and the work ethic are characterized as an ‘identity/spillover’ model. No significant difference was found between work-oriented and leisure-oriented respondents regarding both the intrinsic value and the extrinsic value. This implies that a ‘separateness/segmentation’ model properly characterizes the work-leisure relations for intrinsic and the extrinsic values. The multinomial logistic regression analysis of work-leisure relations shows that as job satisfaction increases in value, the likelihood of being leisure-oriented decreases, suggesting that a ‘contrast/compensation’ model be the proper characterization of the relations. The nature of the relationship between meaning of work variables and leisure orientation defies any simple generalization, and contradicts the conventional approaches that consider work and leisure to be unitary concepts and attempt to establish which of the three models best characterizes their relationship.

Place Your Bet on Politics: Local Governments Roll the Dice

Concentrating at the local level, this study expands on existing research by measuring the political and economic determinants of gambling policy. Using data from the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, a larger data set of interest group activity, levels of saliency, fiscal stress, and leisure orientation were constructed. This article examines the political determinants from the morality policy framework and the economic variables that produce local gambling policy, their interaction effects, and the mediating variable of institutional structure. The evidence shows that political variables, or the determinants of morality policy, are significant predictors of local gambling codes and ordinances, whereas economic variables lack statistical significance. There are substantial interaction effects of interest groups and saliency, and when mediated by local government structure, unreformed governments experience more restrictive gambling policy.

Oferta Laboral en México: un enfoque de variables instrumentales

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the labour supply in Mexico during the period 1988-2002, using micro information in a macro context. This objective will be pursued by analysing the factors relating to the decision of how many hours to work crosswise households, which is made by the head of household. This paper also examines whether or not macro factors, such as public spending on education made at the state level, might influence this decision across states. Firstly, the relevant demographic characteristics of heads of households, as well as assorted state decisions about education spending, are examined in order to estimate a labour supply and map the different responses from households across states.It is useful to estimate the wage elasticity in order to account for the factors that make people work more hours and observe whether there is a preference for work or leisure and how spending on education, and the resulting wage effects, makes people modify their choices. There are several factors that influence the endogenous relationship between hours of work and wages; that is, the decision to work is affected by regional differences, limited number of vacancies across states, lack of unemployment benefits and reduced benefits received from government.The Mexican case is interesting not only because of the differences in wage, education and development across states but also because of the tendency to work more hours per week than several developed countries on a regular annual base. For example, during the period of time considered and based only on working people aged 20-55 years old, one observes that men work on average 481 hours while women work about 38 hours per week. Alesina and Glaeser (2005) compare the hours worked by those employed and at working age in Europe and United States. They note that the US has the highest value for working hours, which is 392, while the lowest is Italy with

The Influence of Leisure Preference, Life Priority and Making Time on Regular Participation in Leisure Time Physical Activity

Using an attitude‐behaviour theory approach this study examined the direct and indirect influence of preference, life priority and time allocation on regular participation in leisure‐time physical activity (LTPA). The cross‐sectional study used self‐report questionnaires to collect data from a random sample of 250 people aged 19 to 87 years living in an Australian city. The findings suggest that people's regular participation in LTPA is not directly influenced by their preference for it. Rather, making LTPA a high life priority and allocating time for LTPA are intervening factors that explain the relationship. The outcomes emphasise the importance of encouraging the formation of a preference for physical activity in young children. They suggest all levels of government and the leisure profession emphasise work/life balance by prioritising LTPA, educating people about time management and helping them to develop time management skills.

Accounting for Leisure Preferences from Within: The Relative Contributions of Gender, Race or Ethnicity, Personality, Affective Style, and Motivational Orientation

This study contributes to the literature by exploring the unique and combined contributions of gender, race or ethnicity (African-, Asian-, European-, Hispanic-American), personality (Big 5 traits, sensation seeking, self-as-entertainment), affective style (positive and negative affect, affect intensity), and motivational orientation (types of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) in predicting seven general types of leisure activity preferences. 999 university students were administered a number of questionnaires and hierarchical regression analyses indicated that variations in activity preferences were largely due to different personality, affective, and motivational constructs. The sole contributions and interaction of gender with race or ethnicity were additional although lesser influences in most types of leisure participation.

Political support and tax reforms with an application to Italy

In 2001 the Italian government introduced a personal income tax reform to be implemented in successive phases. In 2004 taxes were reduced to all income levels with higher gains for low-income and high-income individuals than for middle-income ones. A large debate arised. This paper explores the political economy reasons under this tax reform, mainly the attempt of the government to attract the uncertain voters (swing voters). A probabilistic voting model is introduced to capture the importance of swing voters. The model predicts that the average personal income tax rate tends to be lower for groups of lower income, higher preference for leisure and containing more politically mobile voters (swing voters). However, data from Italian polls show that, while the tax reform was a good strategy to attract swing voters, the specific design of the reform, which favored high-income and low-income individuals, but not the middle class, was not the more appropriate strategy.

Gender-linked Differences in the Toys, Television Shows, Computer Games, and Outdoor Activities of 5- to 13-year-old Children

This study was designed to compare how 5- to 13-year-old children's leisure activity preferences differ with age and gender. Responses from 60 boys and 60 girls about their favorite toys, television shows, computer games, and outdoor activities were compared across leisure categories. The results showed that gender was a significant factor. Overall, boys spent more time in these leisure activities than girls did. They spent the most time engaged in sports, watching television, and playing computer games, whereas girls spent the most time watching television. Results from a gender index for all activities indicated that boys' leisure preferences became slightly more masculine with age. For girls, preferences for television shows became more feminine with age, but preferences for toys, computer games, and sports became less feminine. These self-chosen preferences may provide differential opportunities for the development of visual-spatial skills, achievement, initiative, self-regulation, and social skills.

Preferences, benefits, and park visits: A latent class segmentation analysis

This study describes and predicts segments of urban park visitors to support park planning and policy making. A latent class analysis is used to identify segments of park users who differ regarding their preferences for park characteristics, benefits sought in park visits, and sociodemographics. Data for the present study were obtained using a mail-back survey on park choice behavior from 1,107 residents in the Eindhoven region in The Netherlands in 2002. The latent class analysis resulted in four segments of residents based on clearly different park preferences and benefits sought in the parks. The segments are characterized as "local nature lovers," "passive park users," "visitors of pleasant neighborhood parks," and "active large park users." Sociodemographics did not discriminate between the various segments of park visitors. These findings emphasize the importance of taking into account different leisure preferences and benefits sought by individuals when evaluating the impact of urban green space facilities.

Between Cram-School and Career in Tokyo

In a series of studies (including interviews, observations, surveys and focus groups), we explored the leisure practices of young adults in Tokyo. After initial fieldwork with a wide age-range of participants, we narrowed our focus to 19-25 year olds, who have more leisure time and for whom leisure activities hold greater significance. In this paper, we briefly characterize these transitional “golden years” between cram school and career in Japan, and illustrate how a grounded understanding of leisure preferences and patterns can help suggest issues and opportunities for design.

Leisure and Fatherhood in Dual‐Earner Families

This paper explores the relationship between fatherhood in the context of dual‐earner families in the UK. A gender constructivist theoretical framework is first described then applied to data gathered from interviews with 14 dual‐employed couples with dependent children. Leisure is revealed as a key component of men’s role as fathers that sits alongside the much‐discussed notion of breadwinning. The structure, nature and meaning of leisure is shown to be crucially altered by the onset of parenthood. While leisure still retains meanings of autonomy and personal pursuit, it becomes a context for parenting during childrearing. The discourse of ‘leisure‐based parenting’ contrasts sharply with mothers’ discussions of both parenting and leisure. Data from interviews with both partners are used to highlight the different ‘hierarchies’ of employment, family and leisure that co‐exist within families. The paper also outlines the interactions between mothers’ and fathers’ experience of (paid and unpaid) work, family life and leisure that act to construct and reconstruct gendered lifecourse trajectories. The impact of each partner’s leisure orientations on the behaviour of the other is presented as an example of the way gendered leisure mediates the lifestyles of fathers, mothers and families.

Taxation and Heterogeneous Preferences

Nonlinear income taxes and linear commodity taxes are analyzed when people differ with respect to ability, high-skill agents have heterogeneous preferences, and neither individual abilities nor preferences are observable. We characterize pure income tax optima, which may be bunching or separating optima. In particular, the income tax may not be able to distinguish between those low-income people who are low-skill and those who have a strong preference for leisure. As is shown, there may still be an effect on the optimum income tax schedule, as it will depend on the composition of the population with respect to types of individuals. Finally, the paper addresses what can be achieved by commodity taxes when preferences are heterogeneous - in particular, with respect to targeting groups that the income tax is incapable of discriminating between.

Leisure Preferences of Residents in Nevsehir, a Historical City in Central Turkey

The recreation and leisure activities which emerged with the industrial revolution and developed up to the present day are becoming more and more important. They are important aspects of the lives of individuals, and equally for the health of present-day economies. This paper explores the relationships between socio-economic and demographic features and the leisure preferences and activities of the local people, and the implications for marketing leisure goods and services in a country at an intermediate stage in its economic development, and in a city where tourism has become a major industry. Primary and secondary data are used. The new data is from a survey of 200 residents in Nevsehir, a city in Central Turkey. In addition to standard socio-economic and demographic information, the sample was questioned about their preferences for different kinds of leisure activities. The implications for leisure providers, and for leisure policy in the city and country, are then discussed.

Paid Annual Leave in Australia: An Analysis of Actual and Desired Entitlements

Most full-time employees in Australia are entitled to four weeks paid annual leave. This paper shows that, when compared to other developed countries, four weeks is towards the lower end of the spectrum of annual leave entitlements for full-time employees. Survey data are presented that show that many full-time employees have difficulty accessing their existing leave entitlements. Data are also presented that suggest that the majority of full-time employees would be willing to trade off a small pay rise to purchase additional annual leave. The results presented above raise significant issues for policy makers. They provide a direct counter to the argument that maximising incomes is the most important objective for policy makers by suggesting that community well being could be significantly enhanced not by producing more but by allowing the preference for more leisure to be realised.

An Application of the Social Psychological Model of Tourism Motivation

The purpose of this study was to empirically test Iso-Ahola's (1982) Social Psychological Model of Tourism Motivation (SPMTM). The model is more commonly known as the seeking-escaping theory. Data were collected through a mail survey with 286 respondents and a 31.1% response rate. Factor analysis of the motivation items resulted in a six factor solution. The factors fit into the seeking and escaping dimensions of the SPMTM, thus confirming the model. Motivational factors were compared between Non-Caucasians and Caucasians. Significant differences between the two groups provided support for the subcultural hypothesis, which attributes differences in leisure preferences to differences in norms and values based on racial and ethnic groups.

Nietzschean Development Failures

Government policies, and substantial external resources and technical assistanceprovided over the course of decades, have neither eliminated broad poverty nor resulted inequitable income distributions in the poorer countries of the world. This paper explains thedevelopment failures with reference to Nietzschean behavior where the strong act withoutethical restraint and the rule of law does not protect the weak. While Nietzschean behaviorviolates principles of social justice, there are also inefficiencies. The Nietzschean strong whorule have no incentive to adopt efficiency-enhancing policies. Efficiency in a Nietzscheansociety is also greater, the higher the leisure preference of the weak and the less the weakare capable of producing. Labor productivity is low because the weak do not consistentlywork. These are the outcomes when the strong behave as roving bandits. When the strongbehave as stationary bandits, efficiency is enhanced but income distribution can be expectedto remain unequal. The Nietzschean perspective on development failure is compared withalternative explanations for the sustained plight of the poor in poor countries and the unequaldistributions of income and wealth.