The institutions of the work-leisure divide

Even in the most advanced societies, individuals seem to live in mutually exclusive social and economic spheres. During their leisure time, there is an increasing supply of all sorts of goods that should allow all sorts of happy activities. During their work time they feel used as increasingly flexi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIDEAS Working Paper Series from RePEc
Main Authors D'Antoni, Massimo, Pagano, Ugo
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis 01.01.2021
Subjects
Consumption
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Summary:Even in the most advanced societies, individuals seem to live in mutually exclusive social and economic spheres. During their leisure time, there is an increasing supply of all sorts of goods that should allow all sorts of happy activities. During their work time they feel used as increasingly flexible means of production. Institutions, which include consumption, are often excluding production. Institutions, which include production, are often excluding consumption. Standard economic theory has become a powerful ideology justifying this divide. The paper challenges this ideology and proposes a more general approach where in principle all human activities can contribute to final utility as well as to production. Our approach can give a rationale for policies favoring inclusive institutions that try to overcome the work-leisure divide and allow us to move towards a more satisfactory structure of human activitie