Economic theories predict that with modernity and with the increase in standards of living, individuals will aspire for more leisure. However, the results of empirical studies which examined period trends in leisure time across developed countries do not confirm this presumption. The current study asks: If changes in leisure stem from ideational changes among different generations, will trends in leisure look different if examined across cohorts, or if measured differently? By integrating theoretical definitions of leisure based on literatures in economics, sociology, and psychology, this research derives three main macro-level empirical measures of leisure from various sources. These measures are used to analyze the contribution of population turnover to changes in the quantity of leisure, in developed countries, using linear regression decomposition method. Our results show an almost unequivocal increase in leisure across cohorts, across 159 country-periods, suggesting that new policies supporting domestic consumption are warranted.

经济理论预测，随着现代性和生活水平的提高，个人将渴望更多的休闲。然而，检验发达国家闲暇时间趋势的实证研究结果并未证实这一假设。目前的研究问：如果休闲的变化源于不同代人之间的观念变化，那么如果跨群组检查或不同地衡量，休闲趋势是否会有所不同？通过整合经济学、社会学和心理学文献对休闲的理论定义，本研究从不同来源推导出三种主要的宏观层面的休闲实证测度。这些措施用于分析人口周转对数量变化的贡献休闲，在发达国家，采用线性回归分解法。我们的结果显示，跨越 159 个国家/地区的队列中的休闲活动几乎毫无疑问地增加，这表明支持国内消费的新政策是有必要的。