Loafing or Learning? The Demand for Informal Education

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.

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Year of publication:	2003
Authors:	Fahr, René
Publisher:	Bonn : Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
Subject:	Bildungsverhalten \| Lebensverlauf \| Hochqualifizierte Arbeitskräfte \| Zeitallokation \| Bildung \| Nachfrage \| Deutschland \| Lebenslanges Lernen \| informal education \| lifelong learning \| time allocation \| household production \| censored LAD

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Series:	IZA Discussion paper series ; 859
Type of publication:	Book / Working Paper
Type of publication (narrower categories):	Working Paper
Language:	English
Other identifiers:	368841952 [GVK] hdl:10419/20102 [Handle]
Classification:	J24 - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity ; J22 - Time Allocation and Labor Supply ; D13 - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation ; C24 - Truncated and Censored Models
Source:	EconStor