Substitution between leisure activities: a quasi-natural experiment using sports viewing and cinema attendance

ABSTRACT

The allocation of time between leisure activities and work has been extensively analysed in academic literature. However, leisure time is limited and there may not be sufficient time to enjoy all the leisure activities desired. Hence, this article considers the allocation of time between substitute leisure activities. International football tournaments provide an opportunity to consider consumers’ preferences for watching football and films in a quasi-natural experimental setting. A trade-off between these leisure activities is identified using a difference-in-difference methodology. Using an original, four-country data set, a large and robust negative effect of mega sports events on cinema admissions is identified.

KEYWORDS:

• Leisure
• football
• cinema
• difference-in-difference

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• D12
• J22

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Maria Navarro Paniagua, Colin Green, John Heywood and participants of the 2013 Scottish Economic Society Conference and the 2013 Spanish Economic Association Symposium for helpful comments. Any errors of course remain the responsibility of the authors.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Notes

¹ Working time can vary and produce a change in the free time available. To analyse the substitution between leisure activities, we will assume that, in the short run, working hours are fixed.

² Weekly data are appropriate as matches take place throughout the tournament weeks, so even though, for example, finals matches take place during weekends, the crucial semi-final matches are midweek.

³ These data are available at www.thenumbers.com.

⁴ We assume that production budget expenditure is a reasonable signal of a movie’s quality before release.

⁵ Specific release dates of films per country are available upon request. It could be argued that release dates change per country and movie, but this is not considered a significant issue in this article as the differences between release dates with respect to blockbusters are not significant; for example, Twilight was released in 2010 within 1 week for the four countries, when there was approximately one and a half weeks remaining until the end of the World Cup; and Snow White and the Huntsman was released in the four countries within a period of 2 weeks, during the 2012 European Championship.

⁶ Note that the English team does not represent the whole UK. However, it is assumed that the different countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland may be interested in the performance of the English team even if not everyone may be hoping the English team wins.

⁷ We assume the absence of pre-existing differences between the countries. However, the data in Figure 6 indicate that this issue needs further investigation through the use of robustness checks to be discussed below.

⁸ For the sake of brevity, results are available upon request.