The Effects of Leisure Activities on Academic Performance

Laura Urgelles () and Frick Bernd ()
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Laura Urgelles: University of Paderborn
Frick Bernd: University of Paderborn

No 88, Working Papers Dissertations from Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics

Abstract: This paper analyzes the effect of the participation in different leisure activities on university and college students’ average grade. In a first step, we calculate an OLS regression and find that for male students being a member in a fraternity is negatively related with the average grade. Contrarily, being an active member of a political or religious group is posi-tively correlated with the average grade. In a second step we analyze the influence of the two leisure activities most popular among students (music & arts and sports) in more detail. Using an instrumental variables approach, this study finds that the participation in music and arts positively affects female students’ grades. The participation in sports is negatively related with the average grade, although these results are not significant for the female and male subsamples. This paper contributes to the existing knowledge on the subject by providing empirical evidence for the involvement of students in higher education in a range of leisure activities (e.g. music & arts, sports, fraternities, involvement in the university administration, and activity in political and religious groups). Based on these findings, causal inferences about music and arts can be made as well as inferences about participation in sports. As a result, students may rethink their decisions on leisure time allocations. Higher education institutions might also be able to use this information to adapt their funding decisions in order to support academically beneficial activities such as orchestras, theater groups, or musical bands.

Keywords: leisure activities; higher education; academic performance; instrumental variable regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 C26 I23 J22 J24 L83 Z20 Z29 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47
Date: 2022-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cul, nep-edu, nep-his, nep-lma and nep-spo
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pdn:dispap:88

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