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

Naomi Friedman-Sokuler and Claudia Senik ()
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Claudia Senik: PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, SU - Sorbonne Université

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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: 2023-12
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Published in Research in Labor Economics (ISSN 0147-9121), 2023, 51, ⟨10.1108/S0147-912120230000051001⟩

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Related works:
Chapter: 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:hal:journl:halshs-04192665

DOI: 10.1108/S0147-912120230000051001

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