IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jlabrs/v49y2016i3d10.1007_s12651-016-0206-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring hours worked in Germany – Contents, data and methodological essentials of the IAB working time measurement concept
[Die Berechnung der geleisteten Arbeitsstunden in Deutschland – Inhalte, Daten und methodische Grundlagen der IAB Arbeitszeitrechnung]

Author

Listed:
  • Susanne Wanger

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB))

  • Roland Weigand

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB))

  • Ines Zapf

    (Institute for Employment Research (IAB))

Abstract

This article presents the Working Time Measurement Concept of the Institute for Employment Research, which determines the hours worked in Germany and their individual components. The Working Time Measurement Concept is the key data product on working time in Germany and underlies the German national accounts figure on labour input. These statistics on hours worked are essential for a proper analysis of aggregate labour market trends and cyclical fluctuations. In the Working Time Measurement Concept, changes in working hours due to collective agreements and economic fluctuations are brought together with shifts in employment structure, thus producing a differentiated picture of the scope, structure and development of the annual working time of gainfully employed persons. We outline the conceptual and methodological framework of the measurement, which continually evolves due to its integration in the system of national accounts and due to innovations to the statistical procedures applied. An overview of single components and their data sources is given, while the resulting time series of hours worked and the volume of work are depicted according to their long run trends, cyclical variation and reaction in the 2008/09 financial and economic crisis.

Suggested Citation

  • Susanne Wanger & Roland Weigand & Ines Zapf, 2016. "Measuring hours worked in Germany – Contents, data and methodological essentials of the IAB working time measurement concept [Die Berechnung der geleisteten Arbeitsstunden in Deutschland – Inhalte,," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 49(3), pages 213-238, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jlabrs:v:49:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s12651-016-0206-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s12651-016-0206-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12651-016-0206-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12651-016-0206-0?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
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hansen, Gary D., 1985. "Indivisible labor and the business cycle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 309-327, November.
    2. Jordi Gali, 1999. "Technology, Employment, and the Business Cycle: Do Technology Shocks Explain Aggregate Fluctuations?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 249-271, March.
    3. Dengler, Katharina, 2013. "Effectiveness of sequences of One-Euro-Jobs : is it better to do more One-Euro-Jobs or to wait?," IAB-Discussion Paper 201316, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    4. Michael C. Burda & Jennifer Hunt, 2011. "What Explains the German Labor Market Miracle in the Great Recession," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 42(1 (Spring), pages 273-335.
    5. Balleer, Almut & Gehrke, Britta & Lechthaler, Wolfgang & Merkl, Christian, 2016. "Does short-time work save jobs? A business cycle analysis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 99-122.
    6. Wanger, Susanne, 2006. "Erwerbstätigkeit, Arbeitszeit und Arbeitsvolumen nach Geschlecht und Altersgruppen : Ergebnisse der IAB-Arbeitszeitrechnung nach Geschlecht und Alter für die Jahre 1991-2004," IAB-Forschungsbericht 200602, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    7. Hodrick, Robert J & Prescott, Edward C, 1997. "Postwar U.S. Business Cycles: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16, February.
    8. Ohanian, Lee E. & Raffo, Andrea, 2012. "Aggregate hours worked in OECD countries: New measurement and implications for business cycles," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 40-56.
    9. Bispinck, Reinhard, 2005. "Immer flexibler - und immer länger? Tarifliche Regelungen zur Arbeitszeit und ihrer Gestaltung. Eine Analyse von 24 Tarifbereichen," Analysen zur Tarifpolitik 57, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    10. Mrs. Carol S Carson & Ms. Lucie Laliberté, 2002. "Assessing Accuracy and Reliability: A Note Basedon Approaches Used in National Accounts and Balance of Payments Statistics," IMF Working Papers 2002/024, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Kydland, Finn E & Prescott, Edward C, 1982. "Time to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1345-1370, November.
    12. V. V. Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe & Ellen R. McGrattan, 2007. "Business Cycle Accounting," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 75(3), pages 781-836, May.
    13. Heineck, Guido, 2009. "The determinants of secondary jobholding in Germany and the UK," Zeitschrift für ArbeitsmarktForschung - Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 42(2), pages 107-120.
    14. Durbin, James & Koopman, Siem Jan, 2012. "Time Series Analysis by State Space Methods," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, edition 2, number 9780199641178.
    15. Karl Brenke, 2009. "Erwerbstätige mit Nebentätigkeiten in Deutschland und in Europa," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 76(35), pages 598-607.
    16. Weigand Roland & Wanger Susanne & Zapf Ines, 2018. "Factor Structural Time Series Models for Official Statistics with an Application to Hours Worked in Germany," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 34(1), pages 265-301, March.
    17. Krieg, Sabine & van den Brakel, Jan A., 2012. "Estimation of the monthly unemployment rate for six domains through structural time series modelling with cointegrated trends," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 56(10), pages 2918-2933.
    18. Christian Saborowski & Jürgen Schupp & Gert G. Wagner, 2004. "Urlaub in Deutschland: Erwerbstätige nutzen ihren Urlaubsanspruch oftmals nicht aus," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 71(15), pages 171-176.
    19. Hermann Gartner & Sabine Klinger, 2010. "Verbesserte Institutionen für den Arbeitsmarkt in der Wirtschaftskrise," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 90(11), pages 728-734, November.
    20. Klinger, Sabine & Weber, Enzo, 2015. "GDP-Employment Decoupling and the Productivity Puzzle in Germany," University of Regensburg Working Papers in Business, Economics and Management Information Systems 485, University of Regensburg, Department of Economics.
    21. Wanger, Susanne & Weigand, Roland & Zapf, Ines, 2014. "Revision der IAB-Arbeitszeitrechnung 2014 : Grundlagen, methodische Weiterentwicklungen sowie ausgewählte Ergebnisse im Rahmen der Revision der Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnungen," IAB-Forschungsbericht 201409, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    22. Pfeffermann, Danny & Tiller, Richard, 2006. "Small-Area Estimation With StateSpace Models Subject to Benchmark Constraints," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 101, pages 1387-1397, December.
    23. Ellguth, Peter & Kohaut, Susanne, 2014. "Tarifbindung und betriebliche Interessenvertretung: Ergebnisse aus dem IAB-Betriebspanel 2013," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 67(4), pages 286-295.
    24. Brautzsch, Hans-Ulrich & Drechsel, Katja & Schultz, Birgit, 2012. "Unbezahlte Überstunden in Deutschland," Wirtschaft im Wandel, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), vol. 18(10), pages 308-315.
    25. Daniel D. Schnitzlein, 2011. "Umfang und Folgen der Nichtinanspruchnahme von Urlaub in Deutschland," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 78(51/52), pages 14-20.
    26. Susanne Wanger, 2013. "Arbeitszeit und Arbeitsvolumen in Deutschland – Methodische Grundlagen und Ergebnisse der Arbeitszeitrechnung," AStA Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistisches Archiv, Springer;Deutsche Statistische Gesellschaft - German Statistical Society, vol. 7(1), pages 31-69, August.
    27. Karl Brenke, 2013. "Allein tätige Selbständige: starkes Beschäftigungswachstum, oft nur geringe Einkommen," DIW Wochenbericht, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 80(7), pages 3-16.
    28. Alexander Herzog-Stein & Ines Zapf, 2014. "Navigating the Great Recession," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(3), pages 891-925, July.
    29. repec:zbw:iwhwiw:10-12-4 is not listed on IDEAS
    30. Robert Shimer, 2010. "Labor Markets and Business Cycles," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9217.
    31. George J. Borjas, 1980. "The Relationship between Wages and Weekly Hours of Work: The Role of Division Bias," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 15(3), pages 409-423.
    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. Dietrich, Hans, 2015. "Jugendarbeitslosigkeit aus einer europäischen Perspektive : theoretische Ansätze, empirische Konzepte und ausgewählte Befunde," IAB-Discussion Paper 201524, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    2. Eckman, Stephanie & Kreuter, Frauke, 2015. "Misreporting to looping questions in surveys : recall, motivation and burden," IAB-Discussion Paper 201529, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    3. Fuchs, Johann & Hummel, Markus & Hutter, Christian & Klinger, Sabine & Wanger, Susanne & Weber, Enzo & Zika, Gerd, 2017. "IAB-Prognose 2017: Der Arbeitsmarkt stellt neue Rekorde auf (IAB forecast 2017: The labour market sets new records)," IAB-Kurzbericht 201709, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    4. Christoph, Bernhard, 2015. "Empirische Maße zur Erfassung von Armut und materiellen Lebensbedingungen : Ansätze und Konzepte im Überblick," IAB-Discussion Paper 201525, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    5. Fuchs, Johann & Hummel, Markus & Hutter, Christian & Klinger, Sabine & Wanger, Susanne & Weber, Enzo & Zika, Gerd, 2018. "IAB-Prognose für Wirtschaft und Arbeitsmarkt 2018: Aufschwung auf dem Höhepunkt," IAB-Kurzbericht 201807, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    6. Klinger, Sabine & Weber, Enzo, 2016. "Detecting unemployment hysteresis: A simultaneous unobserved components model with Markov switching," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 115-118.
    7. Weigand Roland & Wanger Susanne & Zapf Ines, 2018. "Factor Structural Time Series Models for Official Statistics with an Application to Hours Worked in Germany," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 34(1), pages 265-301, March.
    8. Johann Fuchs & Enzo Weber, 2017. "Long-term unemployment and labour force participation: a decomposition of unemployment to test for the discouragement and added worker hypotheses," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(60), pages 5971-5982, December.
    9. Kuhn, Moritz & Luo, Jinfeng & Manovskii, Iourii & Qiu, Xincheng, 2023. "Coordinated firm-level work processes and macroeconomic resilience," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 107-127.
    10. Zapf, Ines, 2015. "Who profits from working-time accounts? : empirical evidence on the determinants of working-time accounts on the employers' and employees' side," IAB-Discussion Paper 201523, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    11. Fuchs, Johann & Gehrke, Britta & Hummel, Markus & Hutter, Christian & Klinger, Sabine & Wanger, Susanne & Weber, Enzo & Zika, Gerd, 2018. "IAB-Prognose für 2018/2019: Aufschwung bleibt, verliert aber an Tempo," IAB-Kurzbericht 201821, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    12. Wanger, Susanne & Weber, Enzo, 2016. "Erwerbspotenziale von Arbeitslosen und Erwerbstätigen: Das Stundenvolumen bringt zusätzliche Information (Employment potential of the labour force : Additional information from hours)," IAB-Kurzbericht 201608, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    13. Fuchs, Johann & Gehrke, Britta & Hummel, Markus & Hutter, Christian & Klinger, Sabine & Wanger, Susanne & Weber, Enzo & Zika, Gerd, 2019. "IAB-Prognose 2019: Trotz Konjunkturflaute: Arbeitsmarkt hält Kurs," IAB-Kurzbericht 201907, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    14. Philipp Berge & Matthias Umkehrer & Susanne Wanger, 2023. "A correction procedure for the working hours variable in the IAB employee history," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 57(1), pages 1-16, December.
    15. Fuchs, Johann & Gehrke, Britta & Hummel, Markus & Hutter, Christian & Wanger, Susanne & Weber, Enzo & Weigand, Roland & Zika, Gerd, 2016. "IAB-Prognose 2016/2017: Arbeitslosigkeit sinkt weiter," IAB-Kurzbericht 201620, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].

    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. Wanger, Susanne & Weigand, Roland & Zapf, Ines, 2016. "Measuring hours worked in Germany : contents, data and methodological essentials of the IAB working time measurement concept (Die Berechnung der geleisteten Arbeitsstunden in Deutschland : Inhalte, Da," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 49(3), pages 213-238.
    2. Weigand Roland & Wanger Susanne & Zapf Ines, 2018. "Factor Structural Time Series Models for Official Statistics with an Application to Hours Worked in Germany," Journal of Official Statistics, Sciendo, vol. 34(1), pages 265-301, March.
    3. Ohanian, Lee E. & Raffo, Andrea, 2012. "Aggregate hours worked in OECD countries: New measurement and implications for business cycles," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 40-56.
    4. Wanger, Susanne & Weigand, Roland & Zapf, Ines, 2016. "Measuring hours worked in Germany : contents, data and methodological essentials of the IAB working time measurement concept (Die Berechnung der geleisteten Arbeitsstunden in Deutschland : Inhalte, Da," Journal for Labour Market Research, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany], vol. 49(3), pages 213-238.
    5. Maarten Dossche & Andrea Gavazzi & Vivien Lewis, 2023. "Labor Adjustment and Productivity in the OECD," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 47, pages 111-130, January.
    6. Hansen, G.D. & Ohanian, L.E., 2016. "Neoclassical Models in Macroeconomics," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 2043-2130, Elsevier.
    7. Brinca, Pedro, 2014. "Distortions in the neoclassical growth model: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-19.
    8. Brinca, Pedro, 2014. "Distortions in the neoclassical growth model: A cross-country analysis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 1-19.
    9. Hutter, Christian & Klinger, Sabine & Trenkler, Carsten & Weber, Enzo, 2019. "Which factors are behind Germany's labour market upswing?," IAB-Discussion Paper 201920, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    10. Susanne Wanger, 2013. "Arbeitszeit und Arbeitsvolumen in Deutschland – Methodische Grundlagen und Ergebnisse der Arbeitszeitrechnung," AStA Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistisches Archiv, Springer;Deutsche Statistische Gesellschaft - German Statistical Society, vol. 7(1), pages 31-69, August.
    11. Dupaigne, M. & Fève, P. & Matheron, J., 2005. "Technology Shock and Employment: Do We Really Need DSGE Models with a Fall in Hours?," Working papers 124, Banque de France.
    12. Andrei Polbin & Sergey Drobyshevsky, 2014. "Developing a Dynamic Stochastic Model of General Equilibrium for the Russian Economy," Research Paper Series, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, issue 166P, pages 156-156.
    13. Brinca, P. & Chari, V.V. & Kehoe, P.J. & McGrattan, E., 2016. "Accounting for Business Cycles," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1013-1063, Elsevier.
    14. Tripier, Fabien, 2006. "Sticky prices, fair wages, and the co-movements of unemployment and labor productivity growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(12), pages 2749-2774, December.
    15. Chari, V.V. & Kehoe, Patrick J. & McGrattan, Ellen R., 2008. "Are structural VARs with long-run restrictions useful in developing business cycle theory?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(8), pages 1337-1352, November.
    16. Michael U. Krause & Thomas A. Lubik, 2014. "Modeling Labor Markets in Macroeconomics: Search and Matching," Working Paper 14-19, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    17. Ellen R. McGrattan & Edward C. Prescott, 2012. "The Labor Productivity Puzzle," Book Chapters, in: Lee E. Ohanian & John B. Taylor & Ian J. Wright (ed.), Government Policies and the Delayed Economic Recovery, chapter 6, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
    18. Sergio Rebelo, 2005. "Real Business Cycle Models: Past, Present, and Future," NBER Working Papers 11401, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Özer Karagedikli & Troy Matheson & Christie Smith & Shaun P. Vahey, 2010. "RBCs AND DSGEs: THE COMPUTATIONAL APPROACH TO BUSINESS CYCLE THEORY AND EVIDENCE," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 113-136, February.
    20. Gonzalo Llosa & Lee Ohanian & Andrea Raffo & Richard Rogerson, 2014. "Firing Costs and Labor Market Fluctuations: A Cross-Country Analysis," 2014 Meeting Papers 533, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    IAB working time measurement concept; Hours worked; Volume of work; Components; Persons in employment; System of national accounts;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C82 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Macroeconomic Data; Data Access
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • J2 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:jlabrs:v:49:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s12651-016-0206-0. 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 .

    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.