A growth model with time allocation and social participation

Thomas Bassetti and Donata Favaro ()

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: In this article we propose a model of growth with human capital accumulation, in which individuals allocate their time among work, education and socio-political participation. Socio-political participation, while subtracting time to education, positively affects individual’s utility; the utility function depends on both consumption and time allocated to socio-political participation. The model is expanded to include two social groups, specifically women and men, whose values and targets are different; every individual engages in socio-political activities to socially establish the values of the group she/he belongs to and his utility will be greater the more the society has values similar to those of the belonging group. The model predicts that economies with a more egualitarian presence of females and males in employment and higher population growth rates converge to a stationary state where time allocated to working activities is lower and time for education is higher. We simulate the model on some European countries with different female/male employment rates, population growth rates and capital shares. Simulations confirm the empirical evidence: European countries with a more equal presence of women and men in the labour market experience higher education attainment rates, allocate a higher proportion of time to social participation, and work, on average, a lower number of hours than countries with a lower relative proportion of females in employment.

Keywords: human capital; growth; socio-political participation; social groups; gender (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 J24 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-soc
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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/34500/1/MPRA_paper_34500.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pra:mprapa:15969

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