Considering Time-Use in New Zealand’s Wellbeing Approach

Abstract

With the increased worldwide emphasis on wellbeing economics, the New Zealand Treasury (NZT) has committed to measuring national wellbeing to form a more holistic view of the country’s prosperity.

Their approach is based on the OECD’s Better Life Index but unfortunately current availability of data limits the true potential. Due to this data limitation, the domain of time-use is not considered in the empirical analysis, despite being identified as a critical component of subjective wellbeing. Therefore, this dissertation aims to explore correlations between subjective wellbeing and time-use across different demographics. The results could strengthen the case for NZT to allocate funds and collect the necessary data to ascertain the impact on the wellbeing of New Zealand's people.

The results show that the amount of time spent in paid work is negatively correlated with SWB, although access to employment is positive. This finding provides some additional support for the four-day working week that has been trialled in New Zealand. This allows employees to spend more time with their families and in leisure activities, which are found to have positive correlations with SWB.