The art of living well
Cultural participation and well-being
This paper first presents a meta-analysis of the causal impact of cultural participation
on well-being. The meta-analysis classifies the literature according to the strength
of the evidence available and various types of cultural activities. Secondly, this
paper uses data from time use surveys from Canada, France, Italy, the United Kingdom,
and the United States to study individuals’ emotional responses to a series of daily
activities. This is then used as a basis for an empirical assessment of the drivers
of time allocation across different activities, showing that expectations of future
well-being are one of the reasons why individuals decide to engage in cultural activities.
Furthermore, the model helps explain why cultural participation, in spite of being
one of the most enjoyable human activities, is also the least undertaken. We show
that heterogeneity of preferences results in a strong selection effect in available
statistics.
Available from March 29, 2024
In series:OECD Papers on Well-being and Inequalitiesview more titles