Discretionary Time: A New Measure of Freedom is a nonfiction book written by Robert E. Goodin, James Mahmud Rice, Antti Parpo and Lina Eriksson.

Based on data from six countries – the United States, Australia, Germany, France, Sweden and Finland – the book then describes how temporal autonomy varies under different welfare, gender and household arrangements.

Goodin, Rice, Parpo and Eriksson were awarded the 2009 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research in recognition of the substantial and original contribution of Discretionary Time.

The book blends analytical considerations with statistical research that focuses on six countries that embody different types of welfare and gender regimes.

[4][9] The book's arguments are built around the idea that the ability to choose how one spends one's time lies at the foundation of a notion of freedom.

The operationalisation of necessity here draws on conventions used in poverty research and is based on relative social standards rather than absolute ones.

[4][5][6][8][9] Statistical analysis reveals differences in average discretionary time across welfare states, genders and household situations.

[5][8] Concerning welfare regimes, the book argues that:[15] There is ... much that the state can do to ease or exacerbate time pressures that people would otherwise suffer.

Rather, it transfers money, goods and services, which have the effect of altering the amount of time that people would otherwise have to spend in pursuit of those things.The book estimates that people have more discretionary time in social-democratic Sweden and Finland than in the liberal United States and Australia and corporatist Germany and France.

In contrast, state intervention has a positive effect on the discretionary time of people with children in social-democratic Sweden and Finland.

[4][5][8][18] In recognition of the substantial and original contribution of Discretionary Time, Goodin, Rice, Parpo and Eriksson were awarded the 2009 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research.

The book is not only a pleasure to read and a masterpiece in comparative secondary data analysis, it is also an eye-opener which generates empirically novel and conceptually innovative perspectives on welfare regimes, gender regimes and household regimes.In the Financial Times Stephen Cave described Discretionary Time as full of insights.

[11] Writing in Feminist Economics Valeria Esquivel described Discretionary Time as "... a carefully thought-out and crafted book with strong conceptual and methodological contributions indeed".

[9] Bittman was less convinced, however, by the detail of how necessary time is determined, particularly in relation to unpaid household labour and personal care.

[4] Bavetta expressed some uneasiness, however, with the interpretation of autonomy contained in the book, which he argued fails to account for the psychological process of decision making.

[20] The front cover of Discretionary Time features New Man, a lithograph by El Lissitzky from the portfolio Victory over the Sun (1923).