Value Of Leisure Time Research Articles

The Pandemic of Productivity: A Narrative Inquiry into the Value of Leisure Time

This study explored narratives derived from in-depth interviews to demonstrate how an increase in leisure time could positively affect both our subjective well-being, through a better balance of work and “self”, and the environment, through a change in consumption practices. Firstly, the analysis of the interviews provided insight into the social function of work. Work creates feelings of connection and belonging; however, it can also create the opposite, negatively affecting our experience of leisure time, our productivity, and our well-being. Participants described how paid work provided structure and routine, which resulted in an increased feeling of subjective well-being. However, a lack of structure and routine during the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected feelings of “usefulness” and “productivity”. Secondly, an increase in leisure time created more opportunities for autonomy, leading to more unforced leisure activities and a better balance between work and self. Moreover, an increase in autonomy could be achieved through both increased work flexibility and a shorter working week. Lastly, this study aimed to demonstrate that more leisure time during lockdown periods can change how we spend our free time, therefore resulting in more pro-environmental consumer behaviour. This study intended to contribute to a gap in the literature: effects of leisure time on the balance between work and the “self”. The research setting offered limited opportunities for researching intentional, sustainable consumer behaviour, which provides an opportunity for further research.

IS PRODUCTIVITY ON VACATION? THE IMPACT OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY ON THE VALUE OF LEISURE

Many recent digital innovations (like video games) augment the value of leisure time, which is not captured by Gross Domestic Product. Therefore, the productivity impact of such innovations may be understated. I develop the theoretical foundations for measuring the value of leisure when it is produced using the household’s leisure time and recreational durable goods. I apply this framework to estimate the value of US leisure from 1948 to 2016. While the value of leisure is large, it has become less important over time. I find that productivity growth of leisure time has slowed in the digital era. Household stocks of digital goods are small, so have relatively little impact on leisure value. I conclude that mismeasurement due to household digital goods is not a first-order cause of the recent productivity slowdown.

RELATIONS BETWEEN ANOMIA AND VALUES OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE BALTIC STATES

The purpose of this study was to determine the structure of anomia among the inhabitants of the Baltic states and to investigate whether there are relations between different dimensions of anomia and personal values. The secondary data from the European Values Study (EVS, 2008) were used. The sample consisted of the inhabitants of Latvia (n = 1506), Lithuania (n = 1500), and Estonia (n = 1518). For measurement of anomia and values questions from the original questionnaire of the EVS were used. In this study five components of anomia were found, namely, local social distrust, local social isolation, normlessness, global social distrust, and global social isolation. Numerous relations between anomia and values were found. It was found that there are the following common, similar patterns of relations between anomia and values of the inhabitants of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia: (1) the importance of politics and religion is negatively associated with all dimensions of anomia (with one exception – there is no found the significant relation between the importance of religion and global social distrust in Latvia); (2) the importance of work and family is negatively associated with normlessness; (3) the importance of friends and acquaintances is negatively associated with global social distrust. Estonia was the only country for which it was found that the value of friends and acquaintances was negatively associated with global social isolation and the value of leisure time was negatively associated with local and global social distrust. The value of leisure time was positively associated with local social isolation in Lithuania and with normlessness in Latvia.

Estimating the value of leisure time in Korea

To estimate the value of leisure time, this paper suggests the enodogenous switching model which incorporates individual's willingness to take more leisure time. The empirical results show that the value of leisure time in terms of willingly give-up shadow wage is greater than the market wage by 9% in Korea. The Korea economic crisis in 1997 seems to reduce the value of leisure time nearly 14%.

Is Leisure Time Worth More Than Working Time?

Abstract No abstract available.

The Value of Leisure Time: A Contingent Rating Approach

In this paper, we apply the contingent rating method to the problem of estimating a value for leisure time. This is an important component of recreation demand models. A tradition in this literature has been to use some fixed percentage of the wage rate as the value of time. However, time values are likely to vary across individuals to a greater extent than this suggests, whilst for a given individual time is differently valued according to how it is spent. Empirical results show that there is indeed a wide variation in leisure time values.

New Directions in National Economic Accounting

The national income and product accounts (NIPA) are the most important measures of overall economic activity for a nation. Much as a satellite in space can survey the weather across an entire continent, so can the GDP give an overall picture of the state of the economy. Nevertheless, since their inception, there have been concerns that the accounts are incomplete and misleading because they omit vast continents of nonmarket activity such as unpaid work, the value of leisure time, investment in human capital, and most recently, the environment. The threshold question is: why should we devote scarce intellectual resources to studying nonmarket sectors? The basic insight behind nonmarket accounts is that economic and social welfare does not stop at the market’s border, but extends to many nonmarket activities. Three particular areas are worth emphasizing. One important reason why we need better measures of nonmarket activity is because we spend increasingly fewer of our lifetime hours in market activities. A second and more speculative reason concerns the growing importance (or at least the great importance) of nonmarket assets or mispriced market assets such as the environment and technology. A third point is that current measures of national saving and investment are highly defective. The examples later in this paper address each of these issues. Many of these issues were reviewed in a recent report on augmented accounting by the National Academy of Sciences (see Nordhaus and Edward Kokkelenberg, 1999).

Possibilities for Including the Opportunity Cost of Time in Recreation Demand Systems

Recreation demand modelers have attempted to identify and incorporate the opportunity cost of an individual's time in travel and on-site in the model. Larson (1993b) focused on the value of leisure time in a model where individuals face a fixed work week. In this paper we examine the connection between labor supply and recreation demands, and focus on conditional demand systems. We illustrate that corner solution models are not needed to explain several interesting time-related recreation issues.

Indices of Household Welfare and the Value of Leisure Time

Leisure-inclusive welfare indices, such as the real wage index, have been previously investigated only with aggregate data. Using micro data, however, these indices show the effects of increasing labor market employment of household members. Real wage, expenditure, and nonlabor income indices are compared across six types of husband/wife households. These indices are also compared to ad hoc real wage and leisure-exclusive index measures. Doubt is cast on past results based upon aggregate data.

WORK AND LEISURE: THE PROBLEM OF IDENTITY AMONG PROFESSIONAL WORKERS

ABSTRACT What is the impact of alienating work on the value of leisure time to professionals? The assertion is tested that for workers in large bureaucratic organizations, leisure is seen as a more dominant source of intrinsic rewards and personal identity. Emphasis on leisure for central identity is often assumed for manual and blue collar workers because their work is dull and routine. They compensate by seeing themselves in terms of roles they fill in leisure. Today many suggest that the work of professionals lacks fulfillment in ways similar to blue collar workers. Looking at over 400 aerospace engineers, this study addresses the relationship of intrinsic work rewards to work and leisure identity. Is leisure used as a compensatory source for work that is intrinsically unfilling? Findings indicate that, indeed, leisure is rated higher than work as a source of intrinsic satisfactions and self identity, not, however, as compensation for deprivations felt at work.

Effects of work scheduling on time-income tradeoffs.

Existing theory and data on work--leisure preferences suggest that how work and free time are scheduled may influence workers' preferences regarding the exchange of income for free time. In general, hours and income are not traded in a strict one-to-one fashion; rather, the value of leisure time is in part a function of the "lumps" in which free time is made available. Exploratory research on an accidental sample of 248 employees in ten work organizations supports this hypothesis. Some societal implications of these findings are discussed.

Value of Time in Recreation Benefit Studies

Recreation demand modelers have attempted to identify and incorporate the opportunity cost of an individual's time in travel and on-site in the model Larson (1993b) focused on the value of leisure time in a model where individuals face a fixed work week. ...

The possibilities and usefulness of defining optimum population levels.

The problem of “optimum population” involves maximizing a certain function of population level, distribution, and rate of growth. This paper describes a methodology developed to tackle this problem, as well as a demographic-economic model suitable for simulation purposes, developed specifically for the United States and for a time frame of several decades. This model calculates a “per capita welfare index” as a function of various demographic and economic parameters, making allowances for quantities not normally counted in the gross national product, such as household production and the value of leisure time; but disallowing the costs which arise from resource scarcities, urban disamenities, and the need for increased pollution control. In its simplest application, the model can be used to answer the question “Have we become better off or worse off as our economy and population have grown?” Aside from this historical investigation, it is of course possible to do simulation analyses and to evaluate the probable effects of specific policies on the future welfare of the population.