On the Effect of the Great Recession on US Household Expenditures for Entertainment

Liping(Sophia) Gao, Hyeongwoo Kim () and Yaoqi Zhang

No auwp2015-06, Auburn Economics Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, Auburn University

Abstract: This paper empirically investigates potential effects of economic recessions on consumers’ decision-making process for leisure activities using the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) data during the Great Recession. Recognizing the presence of a high degree of censoring, we employ the Tobit model to assess the income effect on recreational activities in order to avoid bias in the least squares estimator for the latent coefficients. Income coefficient estimates are significantly positive in all years we consider, confirming that leisure is a normal good. However, we observe statistically significant decreases in the income coefficient during recession years in two out of three categories of leisure activities. That is, the responsiveness of consumption to income changes decreases during recession years, which implies a sluggish adjustment in leisure expenditures when economic distress is elevated.

Keywords: Entertainment; Leisure Consumption; Consumer Expenditure Survey; Tobit Model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D12 J01 P46 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-05
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Working Paper: On the Effect of the Great Recession on US Household Expenditures for Entertainment (2013)
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