Improving the level of subjective well-being or happiness is often the primary goal for the government and its policy. Thus, knowing the value of leisure activities in improving the subjective well-being would hugely contribute to the policy-making process. This study explores the impact of participation in leisure activities on individual subjective happiness by applying the well-being valuation method to the national survey data collected in South Korea. Among the five leisure activities, participation in culture and arts, participation in sports, and tourism activities emerged as significant determinants of subjective happiness at the significant level of 0.05. At the individual level, participation in culture and arts exhibited the highest monetary value, while tourism activities have the highest monetary value at the national level, factoring in the total population and the participation rate across the country. These findings confirm the effect of leisure participation in improving subjective well-being and its corresponding monetary value and suggest that government should be appropriately utilizing the leisure policy to increase the frequency and type of leisure participation, thereby enhancing the level of happiness across the society. Results have significant implications for policy makers, practitioners, and academics in the domains of leisure and tourism.
Keywords: compensating surplus; leisure participation; quantification; subjective happiness; well-being; well-being valuation method.