The role of cultural activities engagement on subjective well-being in Italy, 2013-2019. An econometric analysis.

Abstract

Historically, compared to other leisure time activities such as sport or volunteering, the effects of cultural activities participation on life satisfaction have received less attention, yet over the last decade studies on subjective well-being measurement have been receiving growing consideration even from economists. In this paper, we consider variation in subjective well-being from cultural engagement of a sample of Italian individuals in the following categories of cultural leisure activities: visiting museums and art exhibitions, visiting monuments or historical sites, participating in concerts, going to cinema, theatre and reading books. Using cross-sectional data from the 2013-2019 waves of the ISTAT Multipurpose survey on households “Aspects of daily life” (AVQ) and similarly to earlier studies, econometric inference techniques are used to assess whether there are any spillover effects resulting from such cultural consumption on four measures of subjective well-being, namely satisfaction with life as a whole, amount of leisure time, health and job. In general, this study confirms a positive and significative relationship between cultural participation and well-being. Such findings aim to draw attention on the importance of cultural engagement for enhancing life satisfaction and, as a result, to support cultural policies that are evidence-based and centred on well-being and that promote cultural accessibility as a way to improve people’s quality of life.