Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress
Figure 2.3. Ranking of different personal activities based on women’s their hedonic experiences and share of time devoted to them, in selected cities in the United States and France Activities ranked in decreasing order of enjoyment in the United States United States 0.4
25 Rank of activites (left‐hand axis)
0.3
20
Percentage share of time (right‐hand axis)
15
0.2 10 0.1
5
0.0
0
France 0.4
25 Rank of activites (left‐hand axis)
0.3
Percentage share of time (right‐hand axis)
20 15
0.2 10 0.1 0.0
5 0
Note: The ranking of activities is based on information on the proportion of 15-minute intervals in which the hedonic experience of “stress”, “sadness” or “pain” exceeded that of “happiness”. Data refer to a sample of women interviewed in Columbus (Ohio, United States) and Rennes (France), interviewed in 2006 with the Princeton Affect and Time Survey. Source: Krueger et al. (2008).
More generally, it cannot be assumed that people choose among these various activities in the same way as they allocate their budget among various goods and services, as they may have little say in them (e.g. poor families who may prefer to send their kids to work rather than school). Choices over various personal activities can also have externalities on other family members (as in the case of choices about work and leisure) and on people living in the same community (as in the case of commuting). Moreover, the capability approach underlies the intrinsic value of some of these personal activities and their contributions to QoL. One pressing question is to identify the most important personal activities that affect QoL. Those retained below are paid work, commuting, unpaid work and leisure time. As many of these activities are performed at home, and as this home setting is an important determinant of the quality of non-working life, measures of “housing” are also discussed here. While this list of personal activities is partial, it reflects political demands and the feasibility of providing concrete and comparable measures. Several objective indicators can be used to measure these personal activities and the balance between them at different periods of people’s lives (such as the balance between paid work and family life for women with young children). These
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