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Still At Work? An empirical test of competing theories of long hours culture

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  • Cowling, Marc

Abstract

There is increasing evidence of a widening in the cross-country dispersion in general working hours. More recently, however, there has been considerable attention given to the “long hours culture” phenomenon identified in certain segments of the labour market, in particular amongst professional and managerial staff, and potential causes and impacts of such a culture. In this study we use a large-scale European worker survey to test the validity of several competing hypotheses of why people work long hours. Our results show that there is a labour – quality of leisure trade-off for women, but not for men. Other key determinants of long working hours are industry sector, occupational status, gender and job security proxied by employment contracts.

Suggested Citation

  • Cowling, Marc, 2007. "Still At Work? An empirical test of competing theories of long hours culture," MPRA Paper 1614, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:1614
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/1614/1/MPRA_paper_1614.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bei Liu & Hong Chen & Xin Gan, 2019. "How Much Is Too Much? The Influence of Work Hours on Social Development: An Empirical Analysis for OECD Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-15, December.
    2. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    long hours work; labour-leisure trade-offs; labour supply;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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