Keeping in Touch: A Benefit of Public Holidays

40 Pages Posted: 25 Apr 2006

See all articles by Joachim Merz

Joachim Merz

Research Institute on Professions; Research Institute on Professions; Leuphana University of Lueneburg; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Lars Osberg

Dalhousie University - Department of Economics

Date Written: April 2006

Abstract

This paper argues that public holidays facilitate the co-ordination of leisure time but do not constrain the annual amount of leisure. Public holidays therefore have benefits both in the utility of leisure on holidays and (by enabling people to maintain social contacts more easily) in increasing the utility of leisure on normal weekdays and weekends. The paper uses the variation (13 to 17) in public holidays across German Länder and the German Time Use Survey of 2001-02 to show that public holidays have beneficial impacts on social life on normal weekdays and weekends. Since these benefits are additional to the other benefits of holidays, it suggests that there is a case to be made for more public holidays.

Keywords: public holidays, social contacts, social leisure time, time allocation, time use

JEL Classification: J22, I31, Z13, H40

Suggested Citation

Merz, Joachim and Merz, Joachim and Osberg, Lars Spencer, Keeping in Touch: A Benefit of Public Holidays (April 2006). IZA Discussion Paper No. 2089, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=898594 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.898594

Joachim Merz (Contact Author)

Research Institute on Professions ( email )

Lüneburg
Germany

Research Institute on Professions ( email )

Lüneburg
Germany

Leuphana University of Lueneburg

Scharnhorststrasse 1
Lüneburg, 21314
Germany

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Lars Spencer Osberg

Dalhousie University - Department of Economics ( email )

Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5
Canada
902-494-2026 (Phone)

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