The Leisure Experience: me and the others The Leisure Experience: me and the others Victoria Ateca Amestoy, Rafael Serrano del Rosal y Esperanza Vera-Toscano

Capture leisure experience heterogeneity: –Boundaries definition (personal tastes): W hat is leisure? What is discretional and pleasant –Skills and resource availability: private material resources, immaterial (relationships), public resources –Valuation differences: aspirations, past experiences Determine how is individual leisure satisfaction built through an analytical approach: individual leisure experience valuation Explore leisure satisfaction determinants Aims

2 layers model: Halpern & Donovan: –How relevant is leisure satisfaction in the determination of general satisfaction? –General results on leisure satisfaction (+.4, +.2) Evidence from or data: (+.39, +.17) Framework X Job satisfaction Individual General Satisfaction Financial satisfaction Housing satisfaction Leisure satisfaction Health satisfaction Environmental satisfaction

Basic commodities Becker, G.S., (1965) Production and consumption of commodities that fulfill human basic needs. Individual/family acts as a factory combining market goods and time. Gronau, R. & Hamermesh, D., (2003) Arbitrary list of commodities that individuals produce and consume »Sleep »Lodging »Appearance »Eating »Childcare »Health »Travel »Miscellaneous »Leisure (The most time-intensive ) Residual time? No, discretional Limits between categories: cook a meal, go to the park with the children

Commodity production function and consumer’s problem

Variables from Survey on Living Conditions and Poverty The variable that we want to explain: leisure satisfaction Explanatory variables: –Variables related to productive factors: Related to time devoted to the production of leisure experience Related to goods and time available –Variables that work as technological constraints in the production function –Variables that influence valuation Functional form: –Subjective personal –Objective personal –Socio-economics –Household composition –Personal social capital –Environmental characteristics

Tabla I. Variables definition

Hypotheses and regularities Variables that affect - optimal allocation subject to the time constraint: –Occupation –Household composition Number of children Number of adults Elderly Handicapped Variables that affect x – optimal allocation of private goods and services: –Household income –Leisure expenditure capacity –Non basic goods Health status (affecting both, potentially) Sociability: –Contacts with known people –Participation in association –Household type and marital status Individual heterogeneity sources: –Age –Sex –Subjective Social Class Environmental constraints and conditions –Type of habitat (population size)

Tabla III. Estimation results

Age: U-shaped Sex: Differences are not significant Health status: perceived as a restriction and not as a resource Subjective social class: symmetric effect around intermediate category Household composition –Negative effect or number of children, handicapped (weak for old) –No significant effect of adults living with the subject (neither male, nor female) –Household type and marital status: positive effect of the presence of close relatives Socioeconomic –Occupation has a significant effect –Income level is not significant –Non basic goods and leisure expenditure capacity are both significant Social dimension Only informal sociability turns out to be significant Environmental restrictions –Type of habitat: semi urban areas arise in-satisfaction Results

Conclusions Individual leisure behaviour model (leisure is a happiness domain) -Control for individual heterogeneity in satisfaction variability. Leisure experience: subjective and unobservable. Little empirical evidence: contribution Results for the case of analysis (leisure satisfaction in Andalusia): -me and the others

Tabla IIa. Sample statistics

Tabla IIb. Sample statistics