Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T12:03:19.089Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hours Worked Across the World: Facts and Driving Forces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln
Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln*
Affiliation:
Goethe University Frankfurt
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I summarise new facts on hours worked differences across countries and their driving forces. The facts are derived from a comprehensive analysis of micro data sets. First, hours worked are substantially higher in poor than in rich countries. Second, lower hours worked in Europe than in the US can partly be explained by differences in vacation weeks and partly by differences in the demographic structure. Moreover, employment rates tend to be higher and weekly hours worked lower in Western Europe and Scandinavia than in the US, with the opposite being true in Eastern and Southern Europe. Last, among core-aged individuals, married women form the group that exhibits the largest differences in hours worked across countries. International differences in taxation, and especially in the tax treatment of married couples, are an important driver of these differences.

Keywords

hours workedlabour supplytwo-earner householdstaxationE24H20H31J21J22O11
Type
Research Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 247 , February 2019 , pp. R3 - R9
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This is a summary of the Anglo-German Foundation lecture 2018, https://www.mesr.ac.uk/anglo-german-foundation-lecture-series, delivered at NIESR on 18 April 2018.

References

Alesina, A., Glaeser, E. and Sacerdote, B. (2005), ‘Work and leisure in the United States and Europe: why so different?’, NBER Macroeconomics Annual, 20, pp. 1–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alonso-Ortiz, J. (2014), ‘Social security and retirement across the OECD’, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 47, pp. 300–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bick, A. and Fuchs-Schündeln, N. (2017), ‘Quantifying the disincentive effects of joint taxation on married women's labor supply’, American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 107(5), pp. 100–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bick, A. and Fuchs-Schündeln, N. (2018), ‘Taxation and labor supply of married couples across countries: a macroeconomic analysis’, Review of Economic Studies, 85(3), pp. 1543–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bick, A., Fuchs-Schündeln, N. and Lagakos, D. (2018a), ‘How do hours worked vary with income? Cross-country evidence and implications’, American Economic Review, 108(1), pp. 170–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bick, A., Brüggemann, B., Fuchs-Schündeln, N. and Paule-Paludkiewicz, H. (2018b), ‘Long-term changes in married couples’ labor supply and taxes: evidence from the US and Europe since the 1980s’, NBER Working Paper 24995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bick, A., Brüggemann, B., Fuchs-Schündeln, N. and Paule-Paludkiewicz, H. (2019), ‘Hours worked in Europe and the US: new data, new answers’, Scandinavian Journal of Economics (forthcoming).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caselli, F. (2005), ‘Accounting for cross-country income differences’, in Aghion, P. and Durlauf, S. (eds), Handbook of Economic Growth, Elsevier, pp. 679–741.Google Scholar
Erosa, A., Fuster, L. and Kambourov, G. (2012), ‘Labor supply and government programs: a cross-country analysis’, Journal of Monetary Economics, 59, pp. 84–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faggio, G. and Nickell, S. (2007), ‘Patterns of work across the OECD’, Economic Journal, 117, F416–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gollin, D. (2008), ‘Nobody's business but my own: self-employment and small enterprise in economic development’, Journal of Monetary Economics, 55, pp. 219–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, C.I. and Klenow, P.J. (2016), ‘Beyond GDP? Welfare across countries and time’, American Economic Review, 106(9), pp. 2426–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDaniel, C. (2011), ‘Forces shaping hours worked in the OECD, 1960–2004’, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 3, pp. 27–52.Google Scholar
Ohanian, L., Raffo, A. and Rogerson, R. (2008), ‘Long-term changes in labor supply and taxes: evidence from OECD countries 1956–2004’, Journal of Monetary Economics, 55, pp. 1353–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olovsson, C. (2009), ‘Why do Europeans work so little?’, International Economic Review, 50(1), pp. 39–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prescott, E.C. (2004), ‘Why do Americans work so much more than Europeans?’, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review, 28, pp. 2–13.Google Scholar
Ramey, V.A., and Francis, N. (2009), ‘A century of work and leisure’, American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 1(2), pp. 189–224.Google Scholar
Rogerson, R. (2006), ‘Understanding differences in hours worked’, Review of Economic Dynamics, 9, pp. 365–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallenius, J. (2013), ‘Social security and cross-country differences in hours: a general equilibrium analysis’, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 37, pp. 2466–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar