IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp11065.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Antecedents of Overtime Work: The Case of Junior Academics

Author

Listed:
  • Frei, Irina

    (RWTH Aachen University)

  • Grund, Christian

    (RWTH Aachen University)

Abstract

Despite the ongoing public debate about precarious working conditions in academia, there is only little evidence on working hours and overtime work for the group of (non-tenured) junior academics. By using unique longitudinal survey data on the occupational situation and careers of doctoral students and doctorate holders in STEM fields in Germany, we explore potential antecedents of overtime. We find that overtime hours are less pronounced among firm employees holding a doctorate and among postdocs than they are among doctoral students. This result holds in the cross-section and also when examining status changes (from doctoral student to postdoc or to firm employee holding a doctorate) in difference-in-differences estimations. In contrast to firm employees, overtime hours are considerably positively associated with part-time contracts for doctoral students. Furthermore, our results reveal that individuals' career orientation is positively associated with extra hours. In contrast, individuals with family responsibilities and a stronger preference for leisure time spend significantly fewer hours at work.

Suggested Citation

  • Frei, Irina & Grund, Christian, 2017. "Antecedents of Overtime Work: The Case of Junior Academics," IZA Discussion Papers 11065, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11065
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp11065.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lazear, Edward P & Rosen, Sherwin, 1981. "Rank-Order Tournaments as Optimum Labor Contracts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(5), pages 841-864, October.
    2. Wang, Xianwen & Xu, Shenmeng & Peng, Lian & Wang, Zhi & Wang, Chuanli & Zhang, Chunbo & Wang, Xianbing, 2012. "Exploring scientists’ working timetable: Do scientists often work overtime?," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 655-660.
    3. Mark Wooden & Diana Warren & Robert Drago, 2009. "Working Time Mismatch and Subjective Well‐being," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(1), pages 147-179, March.
    4. Suman Ghosh & Michael Waldman, 2010. "Standard promotion practices versus up‐or‐out contracts," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 41(2), pages 301-325, June.
    5. Richard Blundell & Mike Brewer & Marco Francesconi, 2008. "Job Changes and Hours Changes: Understanding the Path of Labor Supply Adjustment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(3), pages 421-453, July.
    6. Silke Anger, 2008. "Overtime Work As A Signaling Device†," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 55(2), pages 167-189, May.
    7. Anger, Silke, 2008. "Overtime Work as a Signaling Device," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(2), pages 167-189.
    8. Robert Drago & Mark Wooden & David Black, 2009. "Long Work Hours: Volunteers and Conscripts," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(3), pages 571-600, September.
    9. Wunder, Christoph & Heineck, Guido, 2013. "Working time preferences, hours mismatch and well-being of couples: Are there spillovers?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 244-252.
    10. David Cyranoski & Natasha Gilbert & Heidi Ledford & Anjali Nayar & Mohammed Yahia, 2011. "Education: The PhD factory," Nature, Nature, vol. 472(7343), pages 276-279, April.
    11. David Campbell & Francis Green, 2002. "The Long Term Pay-Off From Working Longer Hours," Studies in Economics 0205, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    12. Alois van Bastelaer & Georges Lemaître & Pascal Marianna, 1997. "The Definition of Part-Time Work for the Purpose of International Comparisons," OECD Labour Market and Social Policy Occasional Papers 22, OECD Publishing.
    13. Silke Anger, 2005. "Working Time as an Investment?: The Effects of Unpaid Overtime on Wages, Promotions, and Layoffs," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 535, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    14. Egon Franck & Christian Opitz, 2007. "The Singularity of the German Doctorate as a Signal for Managerial Talent: Causes, Consequences and Future Developments," management revue. Socio-economic Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 18(2), pages 220-244.
    15. Gary S. Becker, 1962. "Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis," NBER Chapters, in: Investment in Human Beings, pages 9-49, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Zapf, Ines, 2015. "Individual and workplace-specific determinants of paid and unpaid overtime work in Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201515, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    17. Ines Zapf, 2015. "Individual and Workplace-Specific Determinants of Paid and Unpaid Overtime Work in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 771, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    18. Jon C. Messenger, 2011. "Working time trends and developments in Europe 1," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 35(2), pages 295-316.
    19. Janet Walsh, 2007. "Experiencing Part‐Time Work: Temporal Tensions, Social Relations and the Work–Family Interface," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 45(1), pages 155-177, March.
    20. Booth, Alison L. & Francesconi, Marco & Frank, Jeff, 2003. "A sticky floors model of promotion, pay, and gender," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 295-322, April.
    21. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Alexis Ioannides & Eleni Oxouzi & Stavros Mavroudeas, 2014. "All work and no … pay? Unpaid overtime in Greece: determining factors and theoretical explanations," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 39-55, January.
    2. Mario Bossler & Philipp Grunau, 2020. "Asymmetric information in external versus internal promotions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 2977-2998, December.
    3. Ines Zapf, 2015. "Individual and Workplace-Specific Determinants of Paid and Unpaid Overtime Work in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 771, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Zapf, Ines, 2015. "Individual and workplace-specific determinants of paid and unpaid overtime work in Germany," IAB-Discussion Paper 201515, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    5. Anger, Silke, 2008. "Overtime Work as a Signaling Device," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 55(2), pages 167-189.
    6. Carr, Michael D., 2011. "Work hours and wage inequality: Evidence from the 2004 WERS," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 417-427, August.
    7. Xin Jin, 2014. "The Signaling Role of Not Being Promoted: Theory and Evidence," Working Papers 0314, University of South Florida, Department of Economics.
    8. Gustavsson, Magnus, 2013. "Permanent versus transitory wage differentials and the inequality-hours hypothesis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(3), pages 537-541.
    9. Zapf, Ines & Weber, Enzo, 2017. "The role of employer, job and employee characteristics for flexible working time : An empirical analysis of overtime work and flexible working hours' arrangements," IAB-Discussion Paper 201704, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    10. Jin, Xin, 2014. "The Signaling Role of Note Being Promoted: Theory and Evidence," MPRA Paper 58484, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Mevlut Tatliyer & Nurullah Gur, 2022. "Individualism and Working Hours: Macro-Level Evidence," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 159(2), pages 733-755, January.
    12. Nishtha Langer & Ram D. Gopal & Ravi Bapna, 2020. "Onward and Upward? An Empirical Investigation of Gender and Promotions in Information Technology Services," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 383-398, June.
    13. Argyro Avgoustaki & Almudena Cañibano, 2020. "Motivational Drivers of Extensive Work Effort: Are Long Hours Always Detrimental to Well‐being?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 355-398, July.
    14. Cassidy, Hugh & DeVaro, Jed & Kauhanen, Antti, 2016. "Promotion signaling, gender, and turnover: New theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 126(PA), pages 140-166.
    15. Jed DeVaro & Michael Waldman, 2012. "The Signaling Role of Promotions: Further Theory and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(1), pages 91-147.
    16. C. Sofia Machado & Miguel Portela, 2011. "Age and opportunities for promotion," NIPE Working Papers 03/2011, NIPE - Universidade do Minho.
    17. Catherine Haeck & Frank Verboven, 2012. "The Internal Economics of a University: Evidence from Personnel Data," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(3), pages 591-626.
    18. Michael Waldman, 2012. "Theory and Evidence in Internal LaborMarkets [The Handbook of Organizational Economics]," Introductory Chapters,, Princeton University Press.
    19. Annika C. Froehlich, 2016. "Does the curricular structure affect doctoral enrolment?," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 86(9), pages 1067-1089, December.
    20. Schank, Thorsten & Bossler, Mario & Mosthaf, Alexander, 2016. "More female manager hires through more female managers? Evidence from Germany," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145733, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    working time; overtime; part-time employment; academia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp11065. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.