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Do Working Hours Affect Health? Evidence from Statutory Workweek Regulations in Germany

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  • Kamila Cygan-Rehm
  • Christoph Wunder

Abstract

This study estimates the causal effect of working hours on health. We deal with the endogeneity of working hours through instrumental variables techniques. In particular, we exploit exogenous variation in working hours from statutory workweek regulations in the German public sector as an instrumental variable. Using panel data, we run two-stage least squares regressions controlling for individual-specific unobserved heterogeneity. We find adverse consequences of increasing working hours on subjective and several objective health measures. The effects are mainly driven by women and parents of minor children who generally face heavier constraints in organizing their workweek.

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  • Kamila Cygan-Rehm & Christoph Wunder, 2018. "Do Working Hours Affect Health? Evidence from Statutory Workweek Regulations in Germany," CESifo Working Paper Series 7098, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7098
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    Cited by:

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    2. Bridget Hoffmann & Juan Pablo Rud, 2022. "Exposure or Income? The Unequal Effects of Pollution on Daily Labor Supply," Working Papers 109, Red Nacional de Investigadores en Economía (RedNIE).
    3. Zheng, Hongyun & Vatsa, Puneet & Ma, Wanglin & Zhou, Xiaoshou, 2023. "Working hours and job satisfaction in China: A threshold analysis," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Markus Nagler & Johannes Rincke & Erwin Winkler, 2022. "High-Pressure, High-Paying Jobs?," CESifo Working Paper Series 10102, CESifo.
    5. Lucas Hafner & Benjamin Lochner, 2022. "Do minimum wages improve self-rated health? Evidence from a natural experiment," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 62(6), pages 2989-3014, June.
    6. Fei Zhang & Wei Xu & Adnan Khurshid, 2023. "The Interplay of Migrant Workers’ Working Hours, Income, and Well-Being in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-14, July.
    7. Ravaska, Terhi, 2023. "Do reduced working hours for older workers have health consequences and prolong work careers?," Working Papers 153, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    8. Anthony Lepinteur, 2021. "The asymmetric experience of gains and losses in job security on health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(9), pages 2217-2229, September.
    9. Hu, Zhi-An & Liu, Chang & Wen, Yiping, 2024. "Working hours and employee health: Evidence from China's workweek reduction policy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Berniell, Inés & Bietenbeck, Jan, 2020. "The effect of working hours on health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    11. Hafner, Lucas, 2019. "Do minimum wages improve self-rated health? Evidence from a natural experiment," FAU Discussion Papers in Economics 02/2019, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Institute for Economics.
    12. INUI Tomohiko & KAWAKAMI Atsushi & MA Xin Xin & ZHAO Meng, 2019. "Does Mental Health Affect Labor Market Outcomes? Evidence from a National Representative Survey in Japan," Discussion papers 19061, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    13. Taehyun Ahn, 2022. "Workweek reduction and women's job turnover: Evidence from labor legislation in South Korea," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(4), pages 1607-1625, October.
    14. Bridget Hoffmann & Juan Pablo Rud, 2024. "The Unequal Effects of Pollution on Labor Supply," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 92(4), pages 1063-1096, July.
    15. Baktash, Mehrzad B. & Heywood, John S. & Jirjahn, Uwe, 2024. "Variable Pay and Work Hours: Does Performance Pay Reduce the Gender Time Gap?," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1450, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    16. Xu, Yuanwei & Wang, Feicheng, 2022. "The health consequence of rising housing prices in China," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 114-137.
    17. Tchuente, Guy & Kakeu, Johnson & Francois, John Nana, 2021. "The Forest Behind the Tree: Heterogeneity in How US Governor's Party Affects Black Workers," GLO Discussion Paper Series 947, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    18. Lauren E. Jones & Guangyi Wang & Tansel Yilmazer, 2022. "The long‐term effect of the Earned Income Tax Credit on women's physical and mental health," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 1067-1102, June.
    19. Miki Kohara & Taisei Noda, 2023. "The causal effects of working time on mental health: The effectiveness of the law reform raising the overtime wage penalty," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 638-664, December.
    20. SATO Kaori & KURODA Sachiko & OWAN Hideo, 2024. "Personality Traits as Moderators of the Effects of Working Hours on Mental Health," Discussion papers 24048, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    21. Hoffmann, Bridget & Rud, Juan Pablo, 2022. "Exposure or Income? The Unequal Effects of Pollution on Daily Labor Supply," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 11985, Inter-American Development Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    working time; health; standard workweek; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

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