Quel loisir pour les allocataires du RMI ? L'arbitrage consommation/loisir revisité.

In this paper, we build a renewed labour supply model in order to explain why the RMI recipients don't «fall in poverty traps» but on the contrary accept to work even for low wages. The standard consumption-leisure trade-off is extended : we consider that one needs a minimum consumption level that the non-working time can be either leisure time or to idle time. In the standard labour supply model, leisure which enters in the utility function is implicitly defined as the non-working time. This is regrettable since this period of time is not entirely dedicated to pleasant activities. One can «do nothing» : this «non activity» can be modelled as an inferior good. In this "consumption-leisure-idle time" trade-off, labour supply depends on how much the worker can consume over the survival level and on what he does during non-working time. RMI recipients' consumption is close to the survival level and they have not much to spend on leisure : labour supply is inelastic to wage and there are no traps.