IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tiu/tiucen/1f9a2c0d-128d-4137-9bfa-e18e3277a260.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Working Time Reduction Affects Employment and Earnings

Author

Listed:
  • Santos Raposo, P.M.

    (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research)

  • van Ours, J.C.

    (Tilburg University, Center For Economic Research)

Abstract

December 1, 1996 Portugal introduced a new law on working hours which gradually reduced the standard workweek from 44 hours to 40 hours. We study how this mandatory working hours reduction affected employment and earnings of workers involved. We find for workers who were affected by the new law that working hours decreased, while hourly wages increased, keeping monthly earnings approximately constant. We also find that the working hours reduction did not lead to an increased job loss of workers directly affected. Finally, we find that workers who themselves were not directly affected were influenced by the working hours reduction indirectly. If they worked in a firm with many workers working more than 40 hours before the change in law was introduced.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Santos Raposo, P.M. & van Ours, J.C., 2008. "How Working Time Reduction Affects Employment and Earnings," Discussion Paper 2008-81, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    • Handle: RePEc:tiu:tiucen:1f9a2c0d-128d-4137-9bfa-e18e3277a260
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://pure.uvt.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/1031093/2008-81.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennifer Hunt, 1999. "Has Work-Sharing Worked in Germany?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 117-148.
    2. Cardoso, Ana, 2004. "Wage Mobility: Do Institutions Make a Difference? A Replication Study Comparing Portugal and the UK," CEPR Discussion Papers 4355, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. M. J. Andrews & T. Schank & R. Simmons, 2005. "Does Worksharing Work? Some Empirical Evidence From The Iab‐Establishment Panel," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 52(2), pages 141-176, May.
    4. Bruno Crepon & Francis Kramarz, 2002. "Employed 40 Hours or Not Employed 39: Lessons from the 1982 Mandatory Reduction of the Workweek," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(6), pages 1355-1389, December.
    5. Kapteyn, Arie & Kalwij, Adriaan & Zaidi, Asghar, 2004. "The myth of worksharing," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 293-313, June.
    6. Cardoso, Ana Rute, 2006. "Wage mobility: do institutions make a difference?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 387-404, June.
    7. Mikal Skuterud, 2007. "Identifying the Potential of Work-Sharing as a Job-Creation Strategy," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(2), pages 265-287.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pedro Raposo & Jan Ours, 2010. "How a Reduction of Standard Working Hours Affects Employment Dynamics," De Economist, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 193-207, June.
    2. Rafael Sánchez, 2017. "Does a Mandatory Reduction of Standard Working Hours Improve Employees' Health Status?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(1), pages 3-39, January.
    3. Lee Jieun, 2022. "Effects of a national work hours restriction in a high hours country," IZA Journal of Labor Policy, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, January.
    4. Sánchez, Rafael, 2013. "Do reductions of standard hours affect employment transitions?: Evidence from Chile," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 24-37.
    5. Kawaguchi, Daiji & Naito, Hisahiro & Yokoyama, Izumi, 2017. "Assessing the effects of reducing standard hours: Regression discontinuity evidence from Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 59-76.

    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. Pedro Raposo & Jan Ours, 2010. "How a Reduction of Standard Working Hours Affects Employment Dynamics," De Economist, Springer, vol. 158(2), pages 193-207, June.
    2. Sánchez, Rafael, 2013. "Do reductions of standard hours affect employment transitions?: Evidence from Chile," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(C), pages 24-37.
    3. Raposo, Pedro S. & van Ours, Jan C., 2010. "How working time reduction affects jobs and wages," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 61-63, January.
    4. Jean‐François Fagnart & Marc Germain & Bruno Van der Linden, 2023. "Working time reduction and employment in a finite world," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(1), pages 170-207, January.
    5. Kawaguchi, Daiji & Naito, Hisahiro & Yokoyama, Izumi, 2017. "Assessing the effects of reducing standard hours: Regression discontinuity evidence from Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 59-76.
    6. Zwickl, Klara & Disslbacher, Franziska & Stagl, Sigrid, 2016. "Work-sharing for a sustainable economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 246-253.
    7. Tito Boeri & Jan van Ours, 2013. "The Economics of Imperfect Labor Markets: Second Edition," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10142.
    8. repec:clr:wugarc:y:2016v:42i:04p:665 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Virginia Tsoukatou, 2019. "Examination of the Correlation between Working Time Reduction and Employment," Papers 1912.01605, arXiv.org.
    10. Philipp Poyntner, 2016. "Beschäftigungseffekte von Arbeitszeitverkürzung," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 42(4), pages 665-684.
    11. Lonnie Golden & Stuart Glosser, 2013. "Work sharing as a potential policy tool for creating more and better employment: A review of the evidence," Chapters, in: Jon C. Messenger & Naj Ghosheh (ed.), Work Sharing during the Great Recession, chapter 7, pages 203-258, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    12. Skans, Oskar Nordstrom, 2004. "The impact of working-time reductions on actual hours and wages: evidence from Swedish register-data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 647-665, October.
    13. Ronald L. Oaxaca & Galiya Sagyndykova, 2020. "The effect of overtime regulations on employment," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 1-89, December.
    14. KAWAGUCHI Daiji & NAITO Hisahiro & YOKOYAMA Izumi, 2008. "Labor Market Responses to Legal Work Hour Reduction: Evidence from Japan," ESRI Discussion paper series 202, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    15. Asai, Kentaro & Lopes, Marta C. & Tondini, Alessandro, 2024. "Firm-Level Effects of Reductions in Working Hours," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 2405, CEPREMAP.
    16. 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.
    17. Fang, Tony & Lin, Carl & Tang, Xueli, 2024. "Where did the time go? The effects of China's two-day weekend policy on labor supply, household work, and wages," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    18. Altavilla, Carlo & Garofalo, Antonio & Vinci, Concetto Paolo, 2005. "Evaluating the effects of working hours on employment and wages," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 647-664, September.
    19. Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2009. "Critical Analysis of Some Well-Intended Proposals to Fight Unemployment," University of St. Gallen Department of Economics working paper series 2009 2009-17, Department of Economics, University of St. Gallen.
    20. Kentaro Asai, 2022. "Working Hour Reform, Labor Demand and Productivity," PSE Working Papers halshs-03728157, HAL.
    21. M. J. Andrews & T. Schank & R. Simmons, 2005. "Does Worksharing Work? Some Empirical Evidence From The Iab‐Establishment Panel," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 52(2), pages 141-176, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Workweek reduction; policy reform; employment dynamics; earnings;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions

    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:tiu:tiucen:1f9a2c0d-128d-4137-9bfa-e18e3277a260. 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: Richard Broekman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://center.uvt.nl .

    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.