Keeping in Touch – A Benefit of Public Holidays

Joachim Merz and Lars Osberg

No 57, FFB-Discussionpaper from Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)), LEUPHANA University Lüneburg

Abstract: This paper argues that public holidays facilitate the co-ordination of leisure time but do not constrain the annual amount of leisure. Public holidays therefore have benefits both in the utility of leisure on holidays and (by enabling people to maintain social contacts more easily) in increasing the utility of leisure on normal weekdays and weekends. The paper uses the variation (13 to 17) in public holidays across German Länder and the German Time Use Survey of 2001-02 to show that public holidays have beneficial impacts on social life on normal weekdays and weekends. Since these benefits are additional to the other benefits of holidays, it suggests that there is a case to be made for more public holidays.

Keywords: public holidays; social contacts; social leisure time; time allocation; time use diaries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H40 I31 J22 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2006-04
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http://ffb.uni-lueneburg.de/ffb-files/File/DP/DP%2057-Keeping%20in%20touch.pdf First version, 2006 (application/pdf)
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Related works:
Working Paper: Keeping in Touch - A Benefit of Public Holidays (2006)
Working Paper: Keeping in Touch: A Benefit of Public Holidays (2006)
Working Paper: Keeping in Touch – A Benefit of Public Holidays (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:leu:wpaper:57

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