Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life?

Naomi Friedman-Sokuler and Claudia Senik

A chapter in Time Use in Economics, 2023, vol. 51, pp 1-33 from Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Abstract: Using the American and the French time-use surveys, we examine whether people have a preference for a more diversified mix of activities, in the sense that they experience greater well-being when their time schedule contains many different activities rather than is concentrated on a very small number. This could be due to decreasing marginal utility, as is assumed for goods consumption, if each episode of time is conceived as yielding a certain level of utility per se. With returns to specialization, people would then face a trade-off between efficiency and diversity in choosing how to allocate time. We examine these issues and investigate potential gender differences, considering both instantaneous feelings and life satisfaction.

Keywords: Time allocation; time-use diversity; subjective well-being; life satisfaction; momentary utility; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Related works:
Working Paper: Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life? (2023)
Working Paper: Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life? (2023)
Working Paper: Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life? (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:rleczz:s0147-912120230000051001

DOI: 10.1108/S0147-912120230000051001

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