Specific term required. Reuben Gronau distinguished home production and this concept in a paper built on Gary Becker’s “A Theory of the Allocation of Time.” This concept’s “gap” of two to three hours per week between American mothers and fathers was studied by Arlie Hochschild (“HOKE-shild”). A book partly titled for this concept calls gambling “barbarian” in the chapter “The Belief in Luck.” The opportunity cost of this activity increases with wages, but at high wages, this activity [emphasize] increases in labor’s backward-bending supply curve. Per an 1899 book, pecuniary emulation seeks to surpass a group named for this activity that engages in conspicuous consumption. For 10 points, name this activity of voluntarily abstaining from labor, whose “class” was theorized by Thorsten Veblen. ■END■
ANSWER: leisure [accept The Theory of the Leisure Class or leisure class; accept leisure gap; prompt on free time or time off or not working or relaxation or recreation; prompt on class until read by asking “what other concept characterizes the class in that work’s title?”; reject “unemployment”] (The first paper is “Leisure, Home Production, and Work—the Theory of the Allocation of Time Revisited.”)
<Editors, Social Science>
= Average correct buzz position