IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp14810.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Some Welfare Economics of Working Time

Author

Listed:
  • FitzRoy, Felix

    (University of St. Andrews)

  • Jin, Jim

    (University of St. Andrews)

Abstract

Few skilled workers in the UK have flexible working time – GPs are the exception – most can only choose between unemployment, or full-time work, which has changed little in recent years, while part time work is mainly unskilled. This market rigidity imposes major welfare losses, in contrast to flexibility of worktime for all in the Netherlands, which has the best work-life balance. Stagnating real wages and rising employer market power and inequality follow declining unionisation, but a standard four-day week, tax reform, basic income, and flexibility rights for all could reverse these trends and provide major welfare gains.

Suggested Citation

  • FitzRoy, Felix & Jin, Jim, 2021. "Some Welfare Economics of Working Time," IZA Discussion Papers 14810, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp14810
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp14810.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Corneo, Giacomo, 2002. "The efficient side of progressive income taxation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(7), pages 1359-1368, July.
    2. FitzRoy, Felix & Spencer, David, 2020. "Economic Policy Response to the Pandemic: From COVID-19 Emergency to Economic Democracy," IZA Policy Papers 160, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Costa, Dora L, 2000. "The Wage and the Length of the Work Day: From the 1890s to 1991," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(1), pages 156-181, January.
    4. Mujcic, Redzo & Frijters, Paul, 2015. "Conspicuous consumption, conspicuous health, and optimal taxation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 59-70.
    5. Felix FitzRoy & Michael Nolan, 2016. "Welfare Policies, Relative Income and Majority Choice," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 84(1), pages 81-94, January.
    6. Felix FitzRoy & Michael Nolan & Max Steinhardt & David Ulph, 2014. "Testing the tunnel effect: comparison, age and happiness in UK and German panels," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-30, December.
    7. Frederiksen, Anders & Kato, Takao & Smith, Nina, 2018. "Working Hours and Top Management Appointments: Evidence from Linked Employer-Employee Data," IZA Discussion Papers 11675, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. FitzRoy, Felix R. & Funke, Michael & Nolan, Michael A., 2002. "Working time, taxation and unemployment in general equilibrium," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 333-344, June.
    9. Easterlin, Richard A., 1974. "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 111773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. N/A, 2005. "The World Economy," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 191(1), pages 8-30, January.
    11. Easterlin, Richard A., 1995. "Will raising the incomes of all increase the happiness of all?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 35-47, June.
    12. Easterlin, Richard A., 2016. "Happiness, Growth, and the Life Cycle," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198779988 edited by Hinte, Holge & Zimmermann, Klaus F..
    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. FitzRoy, Felix & Jin, Jim & Nolan, Michael A., 2019. "Higher Tax and Less Work: An Optimal Response to Relative Income Concern," IZA Discussion Papers 12468, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Felix FitzRoy & Jim Jin & Michael Nolan, 2023. "Higher tax and less work: reverse “Keep up with the Joneses” and rising inequality," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 177-190, August.
    3. Brown, Sarah & Gray, Daniel, 2016. "Household finances and well-being in Australia: An empirical analysis of comparison effects," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 17-36.
    4. Kaiser, Caspar, 2022. "Using memories to assess the intrapersonal comparability of wellbeing reports," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 410-442.
    5. Christopher K. Hsee & Yuval Rottenstreich & Alois Stutzer, 2012. "Suboptimal choices and the need for experienced individual well-being in economic analysis," International Journal of Happiness and Development, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(1), pages 63-85.
    6. Brown, Gordon D. A. & Gardner, Jonathan & Oswald, Andrew J. & Qian, Jing, 2005. "Does Wage Rank Affect Employees' Wellbeing?," IZA Discussion Papers 1505, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Paleologou, Suzanna-Maria, 2022. "Happiness, democracy and socio-economic conditions: Evidence from a difference GMM estimator," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    8. William Betz & Nicole Simpson, 2013. "The effects of international migration on the well-being of native populations in Europe," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 2(1), pages 1-21, December.
    9. Tom Truyts, 2010. "Social Status In Economic Theory," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 137-169, February.
    10. Fengyu Wu, 2020. "An Examination of the Effects of Consumption Expenditures on Life Satisfaction in Australia," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(8), pages 2735-2771, December.
    11. Lewis Davis, 2019. "Growth, Inequality and Tunnel Effects: A Formal Mode," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1103-1119, April.
    12. Beja Jr., Edsel, 2013. "Does economic prosperity bring about a happier society? Empirical remarks on the Easterlin Paradox debate sans Happiness Adaptation," MPRA Paper 50633, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Beja Jr., Edsel, 2013. "Does economic prosperity bring about a happier society? Empirical remarks on the Easterlin Paradox debate," MPRA Paper 49446, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Akay, Alpaslan & Martinsson, Peter, 2019. "Positional concerns through the life-cycle," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 98-103.
    15. Krzysztof Zagórski, 2011. "Income and Happiness in Time of Post-Communist Modernization," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 331-349, November.
    16. Akay, Alpaslan & Martinsson, Peter, 2011. "Does relative income matter for the very poor? Evidence from rural Ethiopia," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 110(3), pages 213-215, March.
    17. Drakopoulos, Stavros A., 2008. "The Concept Of Comparison Income: An Historical Perspective," MPRA Paper 8713, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Lichner, Ivan & Lyócsa, Štefan & Výrostová, Eva, 2022. "Nominal and discretionary household income convergence: The effect of a crisis in a small open economy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 18-31.
    19. Wylie Bradford, 2014. "Quo vadis: Does economic theory need a sustainability makeover?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 25(4), pages 551-562, December.
    20. Kapteyn, Arie & Smith, James P. & van Soest, Arthur, 2009. "Life Satisfaction," IZA Discussion Papers 4015, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    working hours; relative income; labour share; basic income;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

    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:dp14810. 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.