The Value of Time ANOUK FESTJENS CHRIS JANISZEWSKI Ten studies are used to document that time is valued in accordance with a double- kinked value function. There is a zone of indifference for small time gains (losses), increasing marginal utility (disutility) for moderate time gains (losses), and dimin- ishing marginal utility (disutility) for large time gains (losses). Moderate amounts of time exhibit increasing marginal utility (disutility) because larger blocks of time provide a more diverse set of usage opportunities. It is only when it is difficult to imagine how more (less) time would be beneficial (detrimental) that there is dimin- ishing marginal utility (disutility) for time. Thus time valuation shows increasing marginal utility when there is a time deficit, but diminishing marginal utility when there is a time surplus. These findings have implications for how other resources might be valued. Keywords: time, value function, marginal utility, resource valuation, riskless choice T ime is an inherently valuable resource that has an in- herently malleable value. For example, consider the value of a block of time (e.g., an hour). The value of this time depends on its expected use (Graham 1981; Okada and Hoch 2004). An hour spent on a meaningful activity is more valuable than an hour spent on a meaningless one (Becker 1965). Likewise, completing more meaningful ac- tivities, in an hour, is more valuable than completing fewer meaningful activities (Becker 1965). Thus it should not be surprising that there are products designed to increase the effectiveness of time allocation (e.g., organizational tools), enhance the efficiency of time usage (e.g., technology), and extend the availability of time (e.g., life-extending fitness and health products). Time is only one of many resources that have a mallea- ble value. The value of financial resources (e.g., wealth), natural resources (e.g., food), social resources (e.g., social network), psychological resources (e.g., willpower), and physiological resources (e.g., metabolic energy) all depend on the opportunities for, and the context of, usage. Yet attempts to assess the value of these resources have often ignored anticipated usage opportunities, especially with respect to the value of an increase in the amount of the resource. For example, it is often assumed that units of a resource are uniform and that demand stays constant, so the next best use of each additional unit of the resource is declining. Thus resource abundance results in diminishing marginal utility: each additional unit of a resource has less value (Bernoulli (1738) 1954; Bo ¨hm- Bawerk 1891). Time is a resource that violates one of the conditions that leads to diminishing marginal utility—namely, that de- mand stays constant. This violation occurs because the length of a block of time determines the activities that can be considered for its use. For instance, the value of 1.5 hours is likely to exceed the value of three 30 minute blocks because the former allows one to complete three 30 minute activities or one 1.5 hour activity. That is, larger Anouk Festjens (Anouk.Festjens@econ.kuleuven.be) is a marketing doctoral candidate in the Research Center for Marketing and Consumer Science at KU Leuven, Faculty of Business and Economics, Naamsestraat 69, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium (Anouk.Festjens@kuleuven.be). Chris Janiszewski (chris.janiszewski@warrington.ufl.edu) is the Russell Berrie Eminent Scholar Chair and professor of marketing, Warrington College of Business Administration, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611- 7155. Anouk Festjens is supported by a PhD fellowship of the Research Foundation–Flanders (FWO). The authors especially thank Cammy Crolic for assistance in programming and data collection and Woochoel Shen for assistance on data analysis. The authors also thank participants in semi- nars at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Washington State University, and Wharton for their helpful comments on this research. Both authors contributed equally to the work. Mary Frances Luce and Vicki Morwitz served as editors and Joel Huber served as associate editor for this article. Advance Access publication May 28, 2015 V C The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Journal of Consumer Research, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com  Vol. 42  2015 DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucv021 178