ECH-22306: Economics of consumption, welfare and society – summaries of the
articles
Lecture 1, article 1: The harriet leisure class – S.P. Linder
Leisure has increased till 1970/1980
Leisure time has increased over time, but the amount of money available per hour
has increased even more goods have become cheaper in relation to leisure time
change from time-intensive to goods-intensive use of leisure time time spent
per item has reduced on average = acceleration (versnelling) of consumption
Consumption is increasingly commodity uintensive consumption goods have a
higher income elasticity than consumption time
The income elasticity of goods is usually confused with the income elasticity of time
one may possibly buy more of everything, but cannot do more of everything
Leisure time has become less relaxed and more harried
Since the efficiency of some activities can be increased by using more goods, one
obtains more utility from such activities. Such activities become popular with
increasing income
Whether or not total consumption time changes, will depend on how easy it is to
substitute goods for time
Declining pleasures of the tables and the bed eating and physical love as a
pleasure are tuned into the satisfaction of a basic need / a conjugal duty
(huwelijksplicht)
Increasing conjugal fidelity (huwelijkstrouw): it takes too much time to establish new
contacts
It is easy to ignore the fact that goods require both time to maintain and time to enjoy
and this form of blindness leads to a suboptimal allocation of time
3 forms of acceleration of consumption
= increasingly little time will be devoted to each consumption item
Buying a more expensive version of a good/commodity
Simultaneous consumption = a consumer tries to enjoy more than one
consumption product at the same time more consumption activities per time unit:
total time spent in using all these things increases, but time allocated to each of them
individually declines.
Successive (opeenvolgende) consumption = a consumer enjoys one commodity
at a time, but each one for a shorter period. less time per commodity unit
Equilibrium: equal marginal utility of spending time on each activity.
Lecture 2, article 1: Met het oog op de tijd – M. Cloin et al.
Differences between 2006 and 2011:
Obligations:
Women: reduction in the amount of time spent on obligations, men: same amount of
time spent on obligations
Derives not from a reduction in paid work but on household work and care tasks
Both men and women (in proportion to their input) spent less time on the household
Reduction in the time spent on caring for children
Due to demographic developments, such as population ageing and dejuvenation
(fewer children being born)
, Personal time:
In personal time, the largest time use category is sleeping
Time spent on eating and drinking remained the same
Free time
Men have more free time than women because women spend more time on
personal care, not because they spend more time on obligations
The amount of free time decreases with increase in education level
The bulk (het grootste deel) of free time use is devoted to media and ICT (excluding
online communication, for example social media, with is classified under social
contacts)
The use of media and ICT is increased
Greater use of the internet was accompanied by decrease in watching TV
Social contacts
Time spend on social contacts is decreased time devoted to online social contacts
is the only form of social contact to show an increase
Reduce in the use of the telephone and visiting others people do spend more time
going to parties and dinners at other people’s home, but this is classified as
recreational time
Recreational activities and relaxation
Woman have less time for recreational activities than men have
The total time spent on these activities did not change, but some shifts did take place
within the total time use in this category more time to going oud and to sport and
less to other pastimes (tijdverdrijf) as games, hobbies, gardening, looking after
animals or amateur arts.
A shift from offline to online games
Trade-off: reduction of resting or briefly doing nothing, but increasing amount of time
spent on sleeping
Social participation = volunteering, providing informal help to persons outside one’s own
household and practising a religion
No significant shifts in overall time use
Intensification of the help provided to others by a smaller group of people less
people do more work
Women more often provide informal help than men
People aged 50+do more often provide informal help
People who spend a lot of time on paid work spend less time on volunteering,
practising a religion and providing informal help
Mobility
The total time spent travelling remained the same
Longer commuting (woon- en werkverkeer) to and from work and less time travelling
for leisure purposes
Collective rhythms many activities are carried out in our daily lives in accordance with a
more or less fixed routine
articles
Lecture 1, article 1: The harriet leisure class – S.P. Linder
Leisure has increased till 1970/1980
Leisure time has increased over time, but the amount of money available per hour
has increased even more goods have become cheaper in relation to leisure time
change from time-intensive to goods-intensive use of leisure time time spent
per item has reduced on average = acceleration (versnelling) of consumption
Consumption is increasingly commodity uintensive consumption goods have a
higher income elasticity than consumption time
The income elasticity of goods is usually confused with the income elasticity of time
one may possibly buy more of everything, but cannot do more of everything
Leisure time has become less relaxed and more harried
Since the efficiency of some activities can be increased by using more goods, one
obtains more utility from such activities. Such activities become popular with
increasing income
Whether or not total consumption time changes, will depend on how easy it is to
substitute goods for time
Declining pleasures of the tables and the bed eating and physical love as a
pleasure are tuned into the satisfaction of a basic need / a conjugal duty
(huwelijksplicht)
Increasing conjugal fidelity (huwelijkstrouw): it takes too much time to establish new
contacts
It is easy to ignore the fact that goods require both time to maintain and time to enjoy
and this form of blindness leads to a suboptimal allocation of time
3 forms of acceleration of consumption
= increasingly little time will be devoted to each consumption item
Buying a more expensive version of a good/commodity
Simultaneous consumption = a consumer tries to enjoy more than one
consumption product at the same time more consumption activities per time unit:
total time spent in using all these things increases, but time allocated to each of them
individually declines.
Successive (opeenvolgende) consumption = a consumer enjoys one commodity
at a time, but each one for a shorter period. less time per commodity unit
Equilibrium: equal marginal utility of spending time on each activity.
Lecture 2, article 1: Met het oog op de tijd – M. Cloin et al.
Differences between 2006 and 2011:
Obligations:
Women: reduction in the amount of time spent on obligations, men: same amount of
time spent on obligations
Derives not from a reduction in paid work but on household work and care tasks
Both men and women (in proportion to their input) spent less time on the household
Reduction in the time spent on caring for children
Due to demographic developments, such as population ageing and dejuvenation
(fewer children being born)
, Personal time:
In personal time, the largest time use category is sleeping
Time spent on eating and drinking remained the same
Free time
Men have more free time than women because women spend more time on
personal care, not because they spend more time on obligations
The amount of free time decreases with increase in education level
The bulk (het grootste deel) of free time use is devoted to media and ICT (excluding
online communication, for example social media, with is classified under social
contacts)
The use of media and ICT is increased
Greater use of the internet was accompanied by decrease in watching TV
Social contacts
Time spend on social contacts is decreased time devoted to online social contacts
is the only form of social contact to show an increase
Reduce in the use of the telephone and visiting others people do spend more time
going to parties and dinners at other people’s home, but this is classified as
recreational time
Recreational activities and relaxation
Woman have less time for recreational activities than men have
The total time spent on these activities did not change, but some shifts did take place
within the total time use in this category more time to going oud and to sport and
less to other pastimes (tijdverdrijf) as games, hobbies, gardening, looking after
animals or amateur arts.
A shift from offline to online games
Trade-off: reduction of resting or briefly doing nothing, but increasing amount of time
spent on sleeping
Social participation = volunteering, providing informal help to persons outside one’s own
household and practising a religion
No significant shifts in overall time use
Intensification of the help provided to others by a smaller group of people less
people do more work
Women more often provide informal help than men
People aged 50+do more often provide informal help
People who spend a lot of time on paid work spend less time on volunteering,
practising a religion and providing informal help
Mobility
The total time spent travelling remained the same
Longer commuting (woon- en werkverkeer) to and from work and less time travelling
for leisure purposes
Collective rhythms many activities are carried out in our daily lives in accordance with a
more or less fixed routine
