Do Working Hours Affect Artistic and Cultural Participation? Evidence from Korea Considering Cultural Genre and Skill Level

This paper explores the influence of working hours on artistic and cultural participation in Seoul, Korea. Using the zero-inflated negative binomial (ZINB) model, we conducted empirical research on how working time affects artistic and cultural participation and how this effect differs according to cultural genres, specifically, fine arts and popular culture. Additionally, focusing on white-collar-worker data from the Seoul Institute’s 2019 Seoul Survey, we distinguished two groups by skill level to investigate how social status influences cultural consumption within time constraints. First, we found that artistic and cultural participation tends to decrease when working hours increase. But, when dividing cultural genres into fine arts and popular culture, participation in fine arts increases even with overtime work. Second, cultural consumption in light of time restrictions is more pronounced in low-skilled groups, whose cultural consumption decreases when working hours increase, whereas cultural consumption in highly skilled groups tends to increase when working overtime. Moreover, even under time pressures, highly skilled workers have higher participation rates in both fine arts and popular culture, supporting Peterson’s (2005) theory of omnivorousness. This study provides an analytical basis for differentiating support policies according to cultural genres and occupation groups