IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwwpp/dp368.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Nobody to Play with?: The Implications of Leisure Coordination

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen P. Jenkins
  • Lars Osberg

Abstract

We hypothesize that an individual's time use choices are contingent on the time use choices of others because the utility derived from leisure time often benefits from the presence of companionable others inside and outside the household. We develop a model of time use, and demonstrate that its consistency with the behaviour of British working couples in the 1990s. We present evidence of the synchronisation of working hours by spouses and report estimates indicating that propensities to engage in associative activity depend on the availability of Suitable Leisure Companions outside the household. Our results indicate the importance of externalities in the working time decisions of individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen P. Jenkins & Lars Osberg, 2003. "Nobody to Play with?: The Implications of Leisure Coordination," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 368, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp368
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.40760.de/dp368.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2002. "Timing, togetherness and time windfalls," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(4), pages 601-623.
    2. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    3. Stephen Knack & Philip Keefer, 1997. "Does Social Capital Have an Economic Payoff? A Cross-Country Investigation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(4), pages 1251-1288.
    4. Corneo, Giacomo, 2005. "Work and television," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 99-113, March.
    5. Weiss, Yoram, 1996. "Synchronization of Work Schedules," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 37(1), pages 157-179, February.
    6. Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1999. "The Timing of Work over Time," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(452), pages 37-66, January.
    7. Hallberg, Daniel, 2003. "Synchronous leisure, jointness and household labor supply," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 185-203, April.
    8. David Lam, 1988. "Marriage Markets and Assortative Mating with Household Public Goods: Theoretical Results and Empirical Implications," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 23(4), pages 462-487.
    9. Lars Osberg, 2003. "Understanding Growth and Inequality Trends: The Role of Labour Supply in the US and Germany," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 29(s1), pages 163-184, January.
    10. Gourieroux, Christian & Monfort, Alain, 1997. "Simulation-based Econometric Methods," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198774754, Decembrie.
    11. Lorenzo Cappellari & Stephen P. Jenkins, 2003. "Multivariate probit regression using simulated maximum likelihood," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(3), pages 278-294, September.
    12. Moulton, Brent R, 1990. "An Illustration of a Pitfall in Estimating the Effects of Aggregate Variables on Micro Unit," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 72(2), pages 334-338, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Merz, Joachim & Osberg, Lars, 2006. "Keeping in Touch – A Benefit of Public Holidays," MPRA Paper 5738, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Killian Mullan & Lyn Craig, 2009. "Harmonising extended measures of parental childcare in the time-diary surveys of four countries – Proximity versus responsibility," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 6(1), pages 48-72, September.
    3. Almudena Sevilla & Jose Gimenez-Nadal & Jonathan Gershuny, 2012. "Leisure Inequality in the United States: 1965–2003," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 939-964, August.
    4. Sajeda Amin & Luciana Suran, 2009. "Terms of marriage and time-use patterns of young wives – Evidence from rural Bangladesh," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 6(1), pages 92-108, September.
    5. Joachim Merz & Lars Osberg, 2009. "Keeping in touch – A benefit of public holidays using time use diary data," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 6(1), pages 130-166, September.
    6. Hugh Millward & Jamie Spinney, 2009. "Time use and rurality – Canada 2005," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 6(1), pages 109-129, September.
    7. Sandra L. Hofferth, 2009. "Changes in American children’s time – 1997 to 2003," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 6(1), pages 26-47, September.
    8. Timo Anttila & Tomi Oinas & Jouko Nätti, 2009. "Predictors of time famine among Finnish employees – Work, family or leisure?," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 6(1), pages 73-91, September.
    9. Katerina Vrotsou & Kajsa Ellegård & Matthew Cooper, 2009. "Exploring time diaries using semi-automated activity pattern extraction," electronic International Journal of Time Use Research, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)) and The International Association for Time Use Research (IATUR), vol. 6(1), pages 1-25, September.
    10. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2005. "Routine," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 29-53, January.
    11. Katie R. Genadek & Sarah M. Flood & Joan Garcia Roman, 2016. "Trends in Spouses’ Shared Time in the United States, 1965–2012," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(6), pages 1801-1820, December.
    12. Mark L. Bryan & Almudena Sevilla, 2017. "Flexible working in the UK and its impact on couples’ time coordination," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1415-1437, December.
    13. Cosaert, Sam & Nieto Castro, Adrian & Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2023. "Temperature and the Timing of Work," IZA Discussion Papers 16480, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Chris Klaveren & Henriette Brink, 2007. "Intra-household work time synchronization," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 84(1), pages 39-52, October.
    15. Joachim Merz & Dominik Hanglberger & Rafael Rucha, 2009. "The Timing of Daily Demand for Goods and Services – Multivariate Probit Estimates and Microsimulation Results for an Aged Population with German Time Use Diary Data," FFB-Discussionpaper 77, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)), LEUPHANA University Lüneburg.
    16. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Myers, Caitlin Knowles & Pocock, Mark L., 2006. "Cues for Coordination: Light, Longitude and Letterman," IZA Discussion Papers 2060, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Sørensen, Jesper R.-V. & Fosgerau, Mogens, 2022. "How McFadden met Rockafellar and learned to do more with less," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    18. C. Barnet-Verzat & A. Pailhé & A. Solaz, 2011. "Spending time together: the impact of children on couples’ leisure synchronization," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 9(4), pages 465-486, December.
    19. Chris van Klaveren & Bernard M.S. van Praag & Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink, 2005. "Empirical Estimation Results of a Collective Household Time Allocation Model," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 05-096/3, Tinbergen Institute, revised 06 Apr 2006.
    20. Victoria Ateca-Amestoy, 2011. "Leisure and Subjective Well-being," Chapters, in: Samuel Cameron (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Leisure, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:diw:diwwpp:dp368. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/diwbede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.