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Holidays and the economic growth of nations

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  • Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich

Abstract

There is sufficient microeconomic evidence that holidays are important to economic life. Is there similar support at the macroeconomic level? This exploratory paper uses a simple approach to assess the impacts of holidays on the economic growth rates of 182 nations in 2002. It finds that the human development level has a larger effect on economic growth rate than holidays. At the aggregate level holidays affect economic growth positively, but in a statistically insignificant way. For example, increasing by one day the number of holidays per year adds 0.30% to annual growth rate. Unlike non-religious holidays, religious holidays, whether Christian or non-Christian, affect economic growth negatively. The results are meaningful, yet statistically weak insofar as their explanatory power is only around 20%. They suggest that instruments for holidays, such as total sales revenue during holidays ,or something, other than the number of holidays, may be better explanatory variables. One can think of any number of fixes like remodeling the problem, choosing alternative estimators and/or functional forms. For now, those fixes belong to future efforts.

Suggested Citation

  • Amavilah, Voxi Heinrich, 2009. "Holidays and the economic growth of nations," MPRA Paper 17326, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:17326
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sudhir Anand and Amartya Sen, 1994. "Human development Index: Methodology and Measurement," Human Development Occasional Papers (1992-2007) HDOCPA-1994-02, Human Development Report Office (HDRO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
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    Cited by:

    1. Laura Birg & Anna Goeddeke, 2016. "Christmas Economics—A Sleigh Ride," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(4), pages 1980-1984, October.
    2. Sayantan Ghosh Dastidar & Nicholas Apergis, 2022. "Holidays and economic growth: Evidence from a panel of Indian states," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 33-50, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Holidays; economic growth; Madonna; human development index (HDI);
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C51 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Model Construction and Estimation
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence
    • E13 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Neoclassical
    • C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General

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