non-work days, we define work days as days on which an individual spends no more than two
hours on employment and non-work days as days on which an individual spends over two
hours on employment.4 Our concern is that there is a substantial amount of employment in
the US on weekends and failure to control for this could muddle the analysis. We have also
excluded those persons who are classified as not employed yet report more than two hours of
employment and households that report neither partner is employed. Disagreements between
the questionnaire and the diary are possible in the US because of the classification of income
generating activities as employment, but are not reasonable for Denmark. The end result is a
sample of 21,979 diaries from the US and 3,780 diaries from Denmark.
The focus of our analysis is leisure time. By our measure, leisure time includes time
engaged in socializing, entertaining or being entertained, playing sports, hobbies and games,
and volunteer activities as well as time spent on pet care. For comparison purposes, we also
conduct an analysis of housework time. Housework includes time spent preparing food;
cleaning house, yard, and clothes; doing projects around the home; shopping; and arranging
such services.5
Sample means of both leisure time and housework time are presented by country,
gender, and type of day at the top of Table 1. Comparisons indicate that on average Danes
enjoy more leisure time than Americans while they perform more housework on work days
and less on nonwork days than Americans. The housework differential is likely in part due to
the fact that Danes report less time on the job on work days than Americans and so have more
time available for other tasks. The second set of rows in Table 1 provides information on the
relative frequency with which individuals report no time on leisure or housework. Between
0% and 5% report no time on leisure. This is more likely to occur on work days than on non-
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