Does Living in New York City Make People Happy with Their Leisure Life?

Social and economic development has been accompanied by an increase in the variety of leisure activities available, ranging from sports and arts to countryside recreation and gaming. Making these options accessible to the public is a central concern of policy makers (Crawford, Jackson and Godbey 1991; Wade 1985) who assume that making more leisure choices available to the public contributes positively to their happiness and well-being. In fact, however, this assumption may not be valid. We focus our research on three questions. First, do large city residents actually engage in a wider range of leisure activities than someone living in a small town? Second, are big city residents happier about their leisure activities? Third, do people’s lay theories about the answers to these questions correspond to reality? Theoretically, these three questions can help us understand how option variety affects consumption and happiness outside of laboratories. Intuitively, the variety of options available could affect satisfaction for at least two reasons. First, a large choice set is likely to increase choice freedom and flexibility. Second, it could increase the actual consumption of a wide range of options.