ECON
291 Economics of Leisure, Recreation, and Sports
Currently enrolled students
click here
Instructor: Dr.
Roberto Martínez Espiñeira
Over the
span of man's history, although a phenomenal amount of education, persuasion,
indoctrination and incantation have been devoted to the effort,
ordinary people have never been quite persuaded that toil is as agreeable
as its alternatives. Thus to take increased well-being partly in the form of
more goods and partly in the form of more leisure is unquestionably rational.
(John Kenneth Galbraith)
Often non-economists have a limited knowledge of
what Economics is all about. They associate Economics with money, stock
markets, inflation rates, exchange rates, and other notions that they see far
from central to their everyday lives. They are wrong. Economics is
about people and about the choices people make, all kinds of choices.
Choices are made about whether to buy beer or milk, about whether to work or
not, and where, and for how long. Choices are also made about whether to
marry or not, and who to marry, and when to divorce. Choices are also made
about life and death, and about crime and punishment. Traditional Introductory
Economics courses, by ignoring the choices we make outside explicit markets and
the choices about uses of our time that do not involve an explicit labour
market, lead students to believe not only that Economics takes the fun out of
life but also that Economics has little to say about fun itself.
In this course we depart from this tradition by
showcasing the power of basic economic analysis and the usefulness of even the
simplest economic models to explain choices associated with our leisure
time. Some of the topics covered apply economics in unusual and often
provocative ways, hoping to spark the students’ interest and curiosity.
However, all of them can be used to invoke conventional models offered by
economic theory to deal with situations that depart from the perfectly
competitive environment covered in ECON100 (the only prerequisite).
This course is based on several subthemes
related to how individuals spend the time they do not spend working in the
labour market. It deals with aspects of the economics of leisure and labour
supply, outdoor recreation; tourism economics; the economics of professional
organised sport and of recreational sports; the economics of prostitution,
dating, and marriage; the economics of crime in relation with the regulation of
illegal drugs and the consumption of addictive goods; the economics of gambling
and other addictive behaviour associated with the consumption of leisure, and
the economics of the cinema and music industry.
The course is based on lecture-format presentations of the theoretical models related to the issue at hand to be followed by in-class discussions of empirical applications and related literature. The required readings will be accessible to students with the prerequisite ECON100 and the theoretical models will be presented at a 200-level that does not require familiarity with calculus.
Time Block:
Fall 2008: GH/HG
Course outline coming
soon
Contact the Instructor:
Dr.
Roberto Martínez Espiñeira
St. Francis Xavier University
Department of Economics
Phone: 902-867-5443
Fax: 902-867-3160
e-mail: rmespi@stfx.ca
Office hours:
MON 1:00-2:00 TUE 1:30-3:30 WED 4:00-5:00 THU 1:30-3:30
Please phone 5443 to set an appointment if you cannot make any of the above
times.
Return to the Department of Economics
Return to STFX homepage
Last updated: 4-SEPT - 2008