IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/hecrev/v12y2022i1d10.1186_s13561-022-00396-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does less working time improve life satisfaction? Evidence from European Social Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Qinglong Shao

    (Freie Universität Berlin)

Abstract

Background Worktime is one of the main drivers of life satisfaction, and a balanced distribution of working hours and leisure hours directly impacts feelings of well-being. Based on previous studies, we seek to confirm this relationship in the European context and explore other potential driving forces of life satisfaction. Health condition as the mediating variable is also examined. Methods This article uses an ordered probit model to analyze the impact of working time on life satisfaction using data extracted from the most recent round (wave 10) of the European Social Survey (ESS). Hypotheses are proposed to test the impact of working time on life satisfaction, the mediating effect of health in the worktime–satisfaction nexus, and the effects of social inclusion, social trust, feelings of safety, and digitalization on life satisfaction. Results The results reveal a negative and significant correlation between hours of work and life satisfaction, thus implying that a shorter working week can improve Europeans’ life satisfaction. Health is found to be an important intermediate variable that plays an essential role in the dynamic through which working times influence life satisfaction. Further, we find that those in the middle class prefer to work shorter hours to achieve a higher feeling of satisfaction and that high earners to a lesser extent, while low earners generally show no preference. Employees of private firms are more satisfied with shorter working hours, while satisfaction for those working in public institutions is not affected by changes in hours worked. Finally, we verify the robustness of our estimations by replacing life satisfaction with happiness. Conclusions Working fewer hours contributes to higher life satisfaction in Europe, and health plays an essential mediating role in this relationship. Social inclusion, social trust, feelings of safety and digitalization all play a factor in improving life satisfaction. Compared to other job categories, private sector employees can achieve greater life satisfaction from reducing their total working time.

Suggested Citation

  • Qinglong Shao, 2022. "Does less working time improve life satisfaction? Evidence from European Social Survey," Health Economics Review, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:12:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-022-00396-6
    DOI: 10.1186/s13561-022-00396-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1186/s13561-022-00396-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1186/s13561-022-00396-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael C Burda & Daniel S Hamermesh & Philippe Weil, 2007. "Total Work, Gender and Social Norms," Working Papers hal-00972818, HAL.
    2. Peggy Schyns, 1998. "Crossnational Differences in Happiness: Economic and Cultural Factors Explored," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 3-26, February.
    3. Michael Lechner & Gabriel Okasa, 2019. "Random Forest Estimation of the Ordered Choice Model," Papers 1907.02436, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2022.
    4. David Bell & Steffen Otterbach & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2012. "Work Hours Constraints and Health," Annals of Economics and Statistics, GENES, issue 105-106, pages 35-54.
    5. Welsch, Heinz, 2006. "Environment and happiness: Valuation of air pollution using life satisfaction data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 801-813, July.
    6. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8650 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8651 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Xiao Tan & Leah Ruppanner & Belinda Hewitt & David Maume, 2022. "Restless sleep and emotional wellbeing among European full-time dual-earner couples: gendered impacts of children and workplace demands," Contemporary Social Science, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 396-411, August.
    9. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8651 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8650 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Becker, William E. & Kennedy, Peter E., 1992. "A Graphical Exposition of the Ordered Probit," Econometric Theory, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(1), pages 127-131, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hua Pang & Qinglong Shao, 2023. "Unpacking the Potential Influence of Life Satisfaction on Network Heterogeneity, Emotional Exhaustion and Mobile App Fatigue: A Stressor–Strain–Outcome Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-16, February.
    2. Anna Gudrun Ragnarsdottir & Paul McNamee & Edward C. Norton & Thorhildur Olafsdottir & Tinna Laufey Asgeirsdottir, 2024. "The Division of Labour Within the Household and Life Satisfaction," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 25(6), pages 1-22, August.
    3. Cristian Ortiz & Aldo Salinas & Johanna Alvarado & Viviana Huachizaca, 2024. "How Much are you Willing to Accept for Being Away From Home? Internal Migration and Job Satisfaction Among Formal-Informal Ecuadorian Workers," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 19(4), pages 1829-1857, August.
    4. Shao, Qinglong & Kostka, Genia, 2023. "The COVID-19 pandemic and deepening digital inequalities in China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(10).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Rode, 2013. "Do Good Institutions Make Citizens Happy, or Do Happy Citizens Build Better Institutions?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 1479-1505, October.
    2. Maddison, David & Rehdanz, Katrin, 2011. "The impact of climate on life satisfaction," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(12), pages 2437-2445.
    3. Luigi Bonatti, 2007. "Evolution of preferences and cross-country differences in time devoted to market work," Department of Economics Working Papers 0719, Department of Economics, University of Trento, Italia.
    4. Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Tyurina, Elena & Nagapetyan, Artur, 2022. "The economic value of the Glass Beach: Contingent valuation and life satisfaction approaches," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    5. Thomas Barnay, 2016. "Health, work and working conditions: a review of the European economic literature," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 17(6), pages 693-709, July.
    6. Salahodjaev, Raufhon & Yuldashev, Oybek, 2016. "Intelligence and greenhouse gas emissions: Introducing Intelligence Kuznets curve," MPRA Paper 68997, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Mengmeng Meng & Weiguo Fan & Jianchang Lu & Xiaobin Dong & Hejie Wei, 2020. "Research on the Influence of Energy Utilization and Economic Development on Human Well-Being in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-26, December.
    8. Ming, Yaxin & Deng, Huixin & Wu, Xiaoyue, 2022. "The negative effect of air pollution on people's pro-environmental behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 72-87.
    9. Michael Burda & Daniel Hamermesh & Philippe Weil, 2013. "Total work and gender: facts and possible explanations," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 26(1), pages 239-261, January.
    10. Holst, Elke & Seifert, Hartmut, 2012. "Arbeitszeitpolitische Kontroversen im Spiegel der Arbeitszeitwünsche," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 65(2), pages 141-149.
    11. Ida Kubiszewski & Kenneth Mulder & Diane Jarvis & Robert Costanza, 2022. "Toward better measurement of sustainable development and wellbeing: A small number of SDG indicators reliably predict life satisfaction," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 139-148, February.
    12. BARTOLINI Stefano & SARRACINO Francesco, 2011. "Happy for How Long? How Social Capital and GDP relate to Happiness over Time," LISER Working Paper Series 2011-60, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).
    13. Jara-Díaz, Sergio & Rosales-Salas, Jorge, 2017. "Beyond transport time: A review of time use modeling," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 209-230.
    14. Christian Bjørnskov & Axel Dreher & Justina Fischer, 2008. "Cross-country determinants of life satisfaction: exploring different determinants across groups in society," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 30(1), pages 119-173, January.
    15. Kant, Shashi & Vertinsky, Ilan & Zheng, Bin, 2016. "Valuation of First Nations peoples' social, cultural, and land use activities using life satisfaction approach," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 46-55.
    16. Wunder, Christoph, 2016. "Working hours mismatch and well-being: comparative evidence from Australian and German panel data," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145544, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Andrés Mauricio Vargas Pérez, 2013. "Bienestar subjetivo y políticas públicas de los gobiernos locales," Revista de Economía del Caribe 14755, Universidad del Norte.
    18. Sayyid Salman Rizavi & Catherine Sofer, 2010. "Household Division of Labor : Is There Any Escape From Traditional Gender Roles ?," Post-Print halshs-00461494, HAL.
    19. Welsch, Heinz & Ferreira, Susana, 2014. "Environment, Well-Being, and Experienced Preference," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 7(3-4), pages 205-239, December.
    20. Frisch, L.C. & Mathis, J.T. & Kettle, N.P. & Trainor, S.F., 2015. "Gauging perceptions of ocean acidification in Alaska," Marine Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 101-110.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:hecrev:v:12:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1186_s13561-022-00396-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13561 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.