institutions that matter. Our attempt to control for values or norms, both social and individual
was less successful. While we did find evidence of substantial cross-country differences in
norms that support our cross-country results that power matters less in Denmark, we found
virtually no evidence that within country differences in norms explained within country
differences in leisure time. Further work is necessary to distinguish between the role of
values and that of institutions. Perhaps expanding the analysis to more countries would aid in
this as a greater range of institutional differences could be examined. While we do find some
cross-country differences in the determinants of couples’ leisure time, it would be of
substantial interest to better understand the role of governmental policy and institutions on
intrahousehold decision making.
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