Arts and Cultural Activities and Happiness: Evidence from Korea

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between attending arts and cultural activities and individual happiness. We classify arts and cultural activities into four categories according to their characteristics: visual arts, performing arts, movies, and sporting events. Our results show that arts and cultural activities have a positive relationship with individual happiness. More specifically, the coefficient for attending performing arts is the highest, and the fall in marginal utility of participation is the lowest for movies. In addition, the benefit from arts and cultural activities is greater in the low-income group than in the high-income group; however, visual arts activities are statistically significant in the high-income group. Through the interaction between household types and cultural activities, we find that the utility increments for performing arts and movies occur in the high-income group. Our results can provide insight for government organizations involved in the promotion of the arts and cultural activities.