Die Dienstleistungsnachfrage im Freizeitsektor - eSport

19. Abstract 324
19. Abstract
Research purpose: Although some research has already focused on the analysis
of leisure service expenditures, some shortcomings with regard to the content and
the underlying theoretical model as well as the applied methods exist. This study
aims at avoiding the mentioned problems to provide consistent information on
sports, recreational and cultural service expenditure patterns of private households
in Germany. Therefore, the dissertation provides significant macroeconomic
findings (e.g., the economic significance of sports, recreational and cultural services)
as well as microeconomic findings (e.g., factors influencing the demand for
these services). Theoretical model: A regular demand system (Working-Leser
Model: Working, 1943; Leser, 1963) is derived from microeconomic duality theory.
To implement leisure specific demand factors (i.e., demand- and supply-based
sports and recreational opportunities as well as sports and recreational preferences)
while still being consistent with neoclassical demand theory, the basic
model is extended by applying the demographic translation framework (Pollak &
Wales, 1992). Methods: To detect the demographic (e.g. age, degree of urbanisation,
region), sociocultural background (e.g. educational level, occupation,
household size), and economic (income) determinants underlying consumer expenditure
on these services, data of the continuous household budget survey
(2005: n=7,591, 2006: n=7,724) are used. Since not all the households spent their
income on all the leisure service items, numerous zero-observations exist in the
data set and the author is faced with the so-called censored sample problem. To
avoid biased estimates Tobit models type I and II are applied. Results: With more
than 25 billion euros, German households spent around two percent of their disposable
budget on leisure services in each of 2005 and 2006. Of this, around 14
billion euros were spent on cultural services, and around 11 billion euros were
spent on sports and recreational services. The estimated regression models show
rather high variance explanatory power (values of R 2 measure up to 50 percent).
This indicates that the set of selected determinants seems to be quite appropriate
for explaining the German households’ expenditure patterns on leisure services.
Some applications of the findings (e.g. demographical scaled expenditure elasticities)
as well as indications for further research projects are presented and discussed.