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The Effects of Labor Market Conditions on Working Time: the US-EU Experience

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  • Claudio Michelacci

    (CEMFI and CEPR, Spain and The Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis, Italy)

  • Josep Pijoan-Mas

    (CEMFI and CEPR, Spain)

Abstract

We consider a labor market search model where, by working longer hours, individuals acquire greater skills and thereby obtain better jobs. We show that job inequality, which leads to within-skill wage differences, gives incentives to work longer hours. By contrast, a higher probability of losing jobs, a longer duration of unemployment, and in general a less tight labor market discourage working time. We show that the different evolution of labor market conditions in the US and in Continental Europe over the last three decades can quantitatively explain the diverging evolution of the number of hours worked per employee across the two sides of the Atlantic. It can also explain why the fraction of prime age male workers working very long hours has increased substantially in the US, after reverting a trend of secular decline.

Suggested Citation

  • Claudio Michelacci & Josep Pijoan-Mas, 2008. "The Effects of Labor Market Conditions on Working Time: the US-EU Experience," Working Paper series 28_08, Rimini Centre for Economic Analysis.
    • Handle: RePEc:rim:rimwps:28_08
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    working hours; wage inequality; unemployment; search; human capital filtering;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity

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