Abstract
This paper combines a time-allocation approach with a model of economic dynamics, based on the accumulation of human capital, and constrained by the environment. Consumption is modelled as an activity, combining time and commodities, and embedded in the environment. An economic interpretation for a structural shortage of time in consumption activities is suggested. It is also shown, that the environmental embeddedness of consumption can contribute to restoring more balanced proportions of time and commodities in consumption. In a dynamic setting the paper also discusses the effects of discounting on consumption, the use of time and the environment. It is found that, within a certain range of the rate of discount, a ‘discounting trap’ may arise, significantly depressing the level of environmental quality in the long-run equilibrium.
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Notes
“Enjoyment of life” is, according to Georgescu-Roegen (1966, p. 97), the final result of the economic process. I prefer to use the expression: ‘enjoyment time’ rather than ‘leisure’, because I want to stress the functional relationship between time and commodities in consumptive actions. The word ‘leisure’ is mostly used in economics to denote a portion of time which can be directly enjoyed by simply abstaining from labour (Chase 1967; Gronau 1977; Oulton 1993; Baldassarri et al. 1994; Ladrón-de-Guevara et al. 1999). Strictly speaking, leisure does not exist in the present paper, since disposable time can only be enjoyed if it is embedded in consumptive activities. Enjoyment time is therefore not just a different word for leisure, but rather denotes the difference between a leisure approach and an activity oriented approach to consumption.
I ignore consumer durables in this paper, and I assume therefore, that commodities are completely transformed into waste during the consumption process.
It must be noted, that the conceptualisation introduced in this paper has nothing in common with the conceptualisation (paid work and leisure) commonly used in time-budget-analysis (Gershuny 1993). Production labour refers to the output of the process (commodities) and not to the forms of payment. Enjoyment time can be paid, if people manage to get payments for doing what they like. The distinction between production and consumption activities does not necessarily coincide with the distinction between the market and the non-market sector of the economy. Since I do not address the question of how production and consumption processes are socially organised (market vs. non-market social organisation), the question of payments is here irrelevant. For a discussion on how work vs. leisure categories relate to market vs. non-market interactions, cf. Kimmel and Connelly (2007).
The preference for work, relative to consumption time, may also have other reasons, than those described in this paper. In a different analytical framework Farzin (2009) shows, that intrinsic work motivation may produce similar results.
In a contribution to the theory of exhaustible resources Farzin (1984) has shown, that a decline in the rate of discount may lead, contrary to traditional theory, to a faster extraction of the resource. Farzins result confirms the view, that the role of discounting may be complex and diverging from simple intuition.
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The author is grateful to an anonymous reviewer for helpful and stimulating comments.
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Cogoy, M. Consumption, time and the environment. Rev Econ Household 8, 459–477 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-010-9092-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11150-010-9092-3