Benefits of leisure (1991)

The benefits of leisure are measured in two ways for different purposes. One type of measure is used by economists for tests of economic efficiency in benefit-cost analyses. The other type – where benefits are viewed as improved or desired conditions of individuals, groups and society – is used to define and quantify the magnitudes of the positive impacts from production and use of leisure services. There is an extensive and rich literature on the ‘economic efficiency’ benefits of leisure. Considerably less documentation exists on ‘benefits as desirable consequences’. This text helps fill that information gap. The text has 35 chapters: 5 are introductory; 21 are state-of-knowledge, generally about a specific type of benefit; 8 represent responses from different disciplines and have a strong methodological or epistemological orientation; and there is one summary/integrative chapter. The purposes of the text are to explain the need for systematic information on the benefits of leisure, document what is known, and recommend future directions for study and analysis. The chapters were written by 57 well-known experts from six countries.