"996"or"2.5"?A Transnational Empirical Study on the Impact of Leisure Time on Economic Growth
Balancing work time and leisure time has always been a hot topic.In recent years,there have been heated debates on"996 working system"and"2.5-day mini-vacation"in China.In order to allocate working time and leisure time scientifically and reasonably,it is vital to explore the relationship between leisure time and economic growth.However,most of the existing literature on the relationship between leisure time and economic growth is theoretical,with few empirical studies.Furthermore,these empirical studies are either single-country or comparative analyses of two countries.Additionally,the only multi-country analysis has an unrepresentative sample size.Therefore,this paper explores the relationship between leisure time and economic growth based on panel data for 41 countries.This paper has three research objectives.First,it attempts to address the lack of sample representativeness in the existing literature to enrich research in the field,as it utilizes the most extensive cross-country sample to date.Second,it explores the impact of the quantity and quality of leisure on economic growth.Third,it examines the relationship between leisure time and economic development across different types of countries.To this end,this paper first analyses the effects of leisure time quantity and quality on economic growth using feasible generalized least squares(FGLS)and panel-corrected standard error(PCSE)methods,respectively,based on the full sample.Next,the samples are divided based on economic development and cultural-geographical characteristics for heterogeneity analysis.The results demonstrate a specific nonlinear relationship between leisure time and economic growth,with a U-shaped trend overall.Economic growth was significantly higher when leisure time accounted for 0.6608 to 0.6855.Furthermore,the impact of leisure time on economic growth differed across countries with varying development levels and cultures.Additionally,human capital positively moderates the relationship between leisure time and economic growth,indicating that quantitative leisure may promote economic growth when combined with human capital.Based on these findings,some policy implications are provided.In the long term,countries could gradually adjust their time share of leisure to the optimal range:0.6608 to 0.6855.Regarding leisure quality,governments should increase education time to improve human capital.For China,it is not appropriate to implement"996 working system"or"2.5-day mini-vacation",maintaining an existing leisure time ratio while reducing working hours to increase education time could improve human capital to directly and indirectly(through enhanced leisure quality)promote economic growth.
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万方数据
