Extending working hours: why not work 42 h rather than 38?—a CGE analysis for Germany

Faced with a record level of unemployment, the present debate in Germany is to extend the weekly hours of work. In this paper the employment effects of an economy-wide increase in weekly hours are quantified on the basis of a computable general equilibrium model for different specifications of the wage setting rule and the use of additional policy-induced public income. The simulation results back the argument of the opponents of longer working time that not more jobs will be created. However, when the higher tax revenues from GDP growth are used to reduce social security contributions, then the claim of the proponents that more jobs will be created can be supported.     

Agency costs and product market competition: The case of audit pricing in Greece

Jensen and Meckling (1976) argue that agency costs are not dependent on product market competition. However, elsewhere in the economics literature, theoretical analysis and empirical research have indicated that product market competition reduces agency costs by reducing the marginal cost of eliciting effort from agents. We investigate the relationship between product market competition and audit fee, as an example of agency cost. Taking advantage of a proprietary data set for Greek audit firms, we find that the audit fee and audit hours are inversely associated with client firm product market competition. We conclude that audit effort, as an agency cost, is reduced where competitive forces reduce the need for shareholders to bear the costs of monitoring agents.     

The economic effects of the 1920 eight-hour working day reform in Sweden

In 1920, the working day in Swedish manufacturing and services was cut from 10 to 8 hours without wages being cut correspondingly. Since workers demanded and got the same daily wage working 8 hours as they had with 10, real hourly wages increased dramatically; they were about 50% higher in 1921–1922 than they had been in 1919. This is the largest wage push in Swedish history, and this paper studies the consequences for profits, investments, capital intensity and unemployment. In traded manufacturing employers responded by increasing capital intensity and did not compensate for rising wages by raising prices, which led to a combination of jobless growth and low profit rates in the 1920s. Firms in non-traded manufacturing and services could raise prices and conserve profitability to a higher degree. In total, the effects of the reform were pro-labour. We discuss the implications for our understanding of interwar wages and employment, the literature on the decrease in inequality found in most industrial countries around 1920 and the rise of the ‘Swedish model’ in the 1920s and 1930s.     

Auditors' Responses to Workload Imbalance and the Impact on Audit Quality*

Using detailed data for fieldwork hours and audit hours by rank from audit engagements in Korea, we examine whether audits conducted under workload imbalance, proxied by busy‐season audits, impair audit quality, and how auditors adjust staff assignments for busy‐season audits. We generally find that busy‐season audits are associated with lower audit quality, and that audit firms reduce the involvement of senior auditors during busy‐season audits. In addition, the greater the involvement of senior auditors and junior auditors, the lesser the deterioration in audit quality. Finally, although there is no increase in interim audits in response to workload imbalance during busy seasons, increasing interim audits can mitigate the negative impact of busy‐season audits on audit quality. Our results are relevant to auditors and regulators, who have expressed concerns about the adverse effects of workload imbalance on audit quality.     

Labour Supply,Life Satisfaction,and the (Dis)Utility of Work*

In economic theory, it is typically assumed that there is a “disutility of labour”. However, empirical research on subjective well‐being has consistently shown that unemployed people are less happy than employed people, even after taking income differences into account. In this paper, we attempt to reconcile both findings. We show that happiness and work hours exhibit an inverse U‐shaped relation – working longer raises the level of happiness, as long as the total working time is not too long. Hence, working can be beneficial for happiness and, at the same time, it can exert a disutility at the margin.     

Allocation of tasks,arrangement of working hours and commuting in different Norwegian households

Weekly working hours and commuting distance can be seen as indicators of equality/inequality between spouses. Traditionally, it is women who adjust their career more readily to meeting family obligations. In an era with a focus on equality between the genders in regard to both education and paid work, it is obvious to think of equality regarding working hours as well, and of distance to and from work. In this study we utilized data from the Norwegian Travel Survey of 2009 to examine the results of adjustments made in weekly working hours and commuting distance in families in which both husband and wife are in paid work. These indicate that the family situation is significant, and that, among other things, children in a family does not lead to any reduction in men’s working hours or commuting distance.Living in the periphery of large cities is disadvantageous for women who want to work full time, while living within a city tends to be to their advantageous in this regard. The results from the analysis of commuting distance show that women do not commute as far as men in comparable groups (working hours, family type, education, place of living, income, access to a car and occupation) and that the policy of regional enlargement is far from gender neutral. So long as it is women who adjust their labour market participation – both temporal and spatial – an enlargement of the regional/geographical labour market resulting potentially in longer commuting distances will primarily favour those who have the possibility to travel irrespectively of family situation, i.e. men, not women.     

EARNINGS INEQUALITY, LABOUR SUPPLY AND SCHOOLING IN HUSBAND–WIFE FAMILIES

This paper describes the association between market work and earnings inequality across families over the life cycle and over calendar time with special attention to the different experiences of college‐educated and high‐school‐educated people. A concise and effective accounting framework is developed that allows for an assessment of the effect of the growing market employment of married women on family earnings inequality. Applying this framework to pseudo‐panel data from successive Current Population Surveys indicates that the increase in wives' employment has diminished the growth in family earnings inequality especially for well‐educated couples. Inferences about the level and change in earnings inequality depend on the degree of labor market attachment of the people studied especially in the case of wives.     

科研人员的时间分配与生活满意度--性别的视角

在各种职业群体中,专业技术人员工作时间最长,作为其子群体的科研人员工作时间长、压力大是不争的事实,但目前学术界对科研人员时间分配状况与其生活满意度的关系还没有可靠的研究。本研究利用“科技工作者时间利用状况调查”数据,分析我国科研人员时间分配状况与生活满意度的关系,并对其中的性别差异做分析。研究发现,工作时间中科研时间所占的比例与满意度负相关,家务劳动时间过长或过短都负面影响满意度,通勤时间也负面影响满意度,睡眠时间越长满意度越高,休闲娱乐时间长短对满意度的影响不明显;男性科研人员和女性科研人员时间分配与满意度关系模式不同,科研时间占比、通勤时间对男性有影响,家务时间对女性有影响。     

Has Switzerland Really Been Marked by Low Productivity Growth? Hours Worked and Labor Productivity in Switzerland in a Long‐run Perspective

This paper shows that previous work has understated Switzerland's performance in terms of labor productivity growth. First, available data on hours worked are incoherent and overestimate growth in hours worked. The paper therefore establishes a consistent series of total hours worked and its components covering 1950–2010, showing that Swiss labor inputs actually were stable from 1964 to 2007. Second, long‐term improvements in Switzerland's Terms of Trade indicate that quality improvements in Swiss exports might not be fully mirrored in growth of GDP and, hence, productivity growth.     

"做家务"还是"继续工作"? ——健康视角下的老年人劳动时间配置

随着健康劳动时间价值的持续上升,合理解决工作时间和家务时间配置的冲突,对于老年人的时间福利提升具有重要实践意义。基于中国健康与营养调查 (CHNS)1997 ～ 2015 非平衡面板数据,使用面板 Tobit 模型实证分析了健康对老年人劳动时间配置的影响。研究发现：（1）慢性疾病和健康冲击显著减少了老年人的工作时间,但增加了家务时间,该结论在收入增加时仍然成立。（2）以日常饮食偏好作为工具变量,采用面板数据工具变量法,发现该结果仍然成立;采用日常生活能力作为自变量进一步的验证健康对老年人劳动时间配置的影响,结果仍稳健。（3）分城乡异质性结果表明,城镇老年人在受到健康威胁时,更重视家庭时间价值,而农村老年人即使受到了健康威胁,仍存在“无休止劳动”现象;分职业异质性结果表明,服务业和非专业技术老年人受到健康威胁时,其工作时间和家务时间都增加,劳动时间福利受损。高级专业技术老年人的工作时间减少,家务时间增加。从事农业劳动的农民和有技术老年人的工作时间增加,家务时间减少。随着收入的增加,没有发现服务业、农业和有技术老年人的工作时间和家务劳动时间之间的相互替代关系,高级专业技术工人更倾向于用家务劳动时间替代工作时间。另外,未发现在城镇从事服务业、农业、非专业技术、技术和高级技术工人五大类职业中工作时间和家务时间之 间的替代关系。从社会保障和社会福利政策、老年劳动力需求相关的政策和畅通职业自由流动政策方面提出政策建议。