Recreational Activities and Its Impact on Poverty in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Although Sri Lanka as a developing country has recently reached the lower-middle-income status as per the World Bank, less attention has been paid on the recreational activities and its impacts on poverty. The study attempts to measure the impact of recreational activities on poverty in Sri Lanka.. Data were gathered through the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) which was conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics in Sri Lanka (DCS). The study applied the probit model to analyse data. Findings of the study suggest that entertainment, religious, recreational and cultural activities are significantly related with the non-poor households. The marginal effect shows that spending on entertainment, religious, recreational and cultural activities decrease the probability of being poor by 0.004, 0.001, 0.0028 and 0.0029 percentage points, respectively. Moreover, the study reveals that the coefficient of the socio-economic and demographic variables such as the age, level of education and marital status of the head of the household have a positive effect on being nonpoor. Therefore, this research study provides the opportunity to both the investors and policymakers to further investigate on non-poor households and their impact on recreational activities on the social sector. These includes targeting leisure and entertainment industries covering cultural and religious activities.