IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp859.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Loafing or Learning? The Demand for Informal Education

Author

Listed:
  • Fahr, René

    (University of Paderborn)

Abstract

Using detailed time use data for Germany a positive correlation is found between the level of schooling education and time investments in informal education. Two hypotheses explain this observation: (1) highly educated people have higher opportunity costs of their leisure time and thus prefer leisure activities which add to their market productivity (wage effect) and (2) highly educated people have a preference for ‘high quality’ leisure (taste effect). The demand for informal education is derived in a household production model accounting for both explanations. An empirical investigation finds evidence for both effects with the taste effect being the more important effect. Highly educated people accumulate human capital through their specific leisure time use. This increases the skill-gap between higher and lower educated people.

Suggested Citation

  • Fahr, René, 2003. "Loafing or Learning? The Demand for Informal Education," IZA Discussion Papers 859, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp859
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp859.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reuben Gronau & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2008. "The Demand for Variety: A Household Production Perspective," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 562-572, August.
    2. Powell, James L., 1984. "Least absolute deviations estimation for the censored regression model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 303-325, July.
    3. Krueger, Alan B & Summers, Lawrence H, 1988. "Efficiency Wages and the Inter-industry Wage Structure," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(2), pages 259-293, March.
    4. Davidson, Russell & MacKinnon, James G., 1993. "Estimation and Inference in Econometrics," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195060119.
    5. Melissa Osborne & Herbert Gintis & Samuel Bowles, 2001. "The Determinants of Earnings: A Behavioral Approach," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1137-1176, December.
    6. Kooreman, Peter & Kapteyn, Arie, 1987. "A Disaggregated Analysis of the Allocation of Time within the Household," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(2), pages 223-249, April.
    7. Biddle, Jeff E & Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1990. "Sleep and the Allocation of Time," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 922-943, October.
    8. Bartel, Ann P & Sicherman, Nachum, 1998. "Technological Change and the Skill Acquisition of Young Workers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(4), pages 718-755, October.
    9. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2002. "Timing, togetherness and time windfalls," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 15(4), pages 601-623.
    10. Pfeiffer, Friedhelm & Reize, Frank, 2000. "Formelle und informelle berufliche Weiterbildung und Verdienst bei Arbeitnehmern und Selbständigen," ZEW Discussion Papers 00-01, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. Janet Currie, 2001. "Early Childhood Education Programs," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 213-238, Spring.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Beblavý, Miroslav & Thum, Anna-Elisabeth & Potjagailo, Galina, 2013. "When do adults learn? A cohort analysis of adult education in Europe," CEPS Papers 8059, Centre for European Policy Studies.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fahr, Rene, 2005. "Loafing or learning?--the demand for informal education," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 75-98, January.
    2. Reuben Gronau & Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2008. "The Demand for Variety: A Household Production Perspective," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 562-572, August.
    3. Naomi Friedman-Sokuler & Claudia Senik, 2022. "Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is there a Preference for Activity Diversity?," PSE Working Papers halshs-03828272, HAL.
    4. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/8642 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8642 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Jorge Gonz�lez, 2015. "Estimating income elasticities of leisure activities using cross-sectional categorized data," Documentos de Trabajo dt2015-02, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de Zaragoza.
    7. Michael C Burda & Daniel S Hamermesh & Philippe Weil, 2008. "Total Work, Gender and Social Norms in EU and US Time Use," Post-Print hal-00972821, HAL.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8642 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8642 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8651 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Michael Burda & Daniel Hamermesh & Philippe Weil, 2013. "Total work and gender: facts and possible explanations," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 239-261, January.
    12. R.Ramya, 2019. "Care Work and Time Use: A Focus on Child Care, Personal Care and Elderly Care Time," Shanlax International Journal of Economics, Shanlax Journals, vol. 7(2), pages 34-41, March.
    13. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8651 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, Jose Alberto, 2015. "Health status and the allocation of time: Cross-country evidence from Europe," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 188-203.
    15. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2007. "Measuring Trends in Leisure: The Allocation of Time Over Five Decades," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(3), pages 969-1006.
    16. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2005. "Why Not Retire? The Time and Timing Costs of Market Work," Working Papers wp104, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center.
    17. Cosaert, Sam & Nieto Castro, Adrian & Tatsiramos, Konstantinos, 2023. "Temperature and the Timing of Work," IZA Discussion Papers 16480, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Almudena Sevilla & Jose Gimenez-Nadal & Jonathan Gershuny, 2012. "Leisure Inequality in the United States: 1965–2003," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 939-964, August.
    19. Marco Castillo & John A. List & Ragan Petrie & Anya Samek, 2020. "Detecting Drivers of Behavior at an Early Age: Evidence from a Longitudinal Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 28288, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Mark Aguiar & Erik Hurst, 2006. "Measuring trends in leisure," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
    21. Julia Bredtmann, 2014. "The Intra-household Division of Labor: An Empirical Analysis of Spousal Influences on Individual Time Allocation," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 28(1), pages 1-39, March.
    22. Naomi Friedman-Sokuler & Claudia Senik, 2023. "Time-Use and Subjective Well-Being: Is Diversity Really the Spice of Life?," Research in Labor Economics, in: Time Use in Economics, volume 51, pages 1-33, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    23. Hamermesh, Daniel S., 2006. "The Time and Timing Costs of Market Work, and their Implications for Retirement," IZA Discussion Papers 2030, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    24. Arapa, Briyit & Sánchez, Eduardo & Hurtado-Mazeyra, Alejandra & Sánchez, Alan, 2021. "The relationship between access to pre-school education and the development of social-emotional competencies: Longitudinal evidence from Peru," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    25. Gimenez-Nadal, Jose Ignacio & Sevilla, Almudena, 2012. "Trends in time allocation: A cross-country analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1338-1359.
    26. Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2001. "Continuous training in Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 14(3), pages 523-548.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    informal education; lifelong learning; time allocation; household production; censored LAD;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C24 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models; Threshold Regression Models
    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp859. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.