More hours, more jobs? The employment effects of longer working hours

Increases in standard hours of work have been a contentious policy issue in Germany. Whilst this might directly lead to a substitution of workers by hours, there may also be a positive employment effect due to reduced costs. Moreover, the response of firms may differ between firms that offer overtim...

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Main Authors: Andrews, Martyn, Gerner, Hans-Dieter, Schank, Thorsten, Upward, Richard
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29753/
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author Andrews, Martyn
Gerner, Hans-Dieter
Schank, Thorsten
Upward, Richard
author_facet Andrews, Martyn
Gerner, Hans-Dieter
Schank, Thorsten
Upward, Richard
author_sort Andrews, Martyn
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Increases in standard hours of work have been a contentious policy issue in Germany. Whilst this might directly lead to a substitution of workers by hours, there may also be a positive employment effect due to reduced costs. Moreover, the response of firms may differ between firms that offer overtime and those that do not. For a panel of German plants (2001–2006) drawn from the IAB Establishment Panel, we are the first to analyse the effect of increased standard hours on employment. Using difference-in-difference methods we find that, consistent with theory, overtime plants showed a significant positive employment response, whilst for standard-time plants there is no difference between plants that increased standard hours and those that did not. There is clear evidence of wage concession in all treated plants.
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spelling nottingham-297532020-05-04T16:53:55Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29753/ More hours, more jobs? The employment effects of longer working hours Andrews, Martyn Gerner, Hans-Dieter Schank, Thorsten Upward, Richard Increases in standard hours of work have been a contentious policy issue in Germany. Whilst this might directly lead to a substitution of workers by hours, there may also be a positive employment effect due to reduced costs. Moreover, the response of firms may differ between firms that offer overtime and those that do not. For a panel of German plants (2001–2006) drawn from the IAB Establishment Panel, we are the first to analyse the effect of increased standard hours on employment. Using difference-in-difference methods we find that, consistent with theory, overtime plants showed a significant positive employment response, whilst for standard-time plants there is no difference between plants that increased standard hours and those that did not. There is clear evidence of wage concession in all treated plants. Oxford University Press 2014-09-16 Article PeerReviewed Andrews, Martyn, Gerner, Hans-Dieter, Schank, Thorsten and Upward, Richard (2014) More hours, more jobs? The employment effects of longer working hours. Oxford Economic Papers, 67 (2). pp. 245-268. ISSN 0030-7653 working hours wage concession overtime payments http://oep.oxfordjournals.org/content/67/2/245 doi:10.1093/oep/gpu026 doi:10.1093/oep/gpu026
spellingShingle working hours
wage concession
overtime payments
Andrews, Martyn
Gerner, Hans-Dieter
Schank, Thorsten
Upward, Richard
More hours, more jobs? The employment effects of longer working hours
title More hours, more jobs? The employment effects of longer working hours
title_full More hours, more jobs? The employment effects of longer working hours
title_fullStr More hours, more jobs? The employment effects of longer working hours
title_full_unstemmed More hours, more jobs? The employment effects of longer working hours
title_short More hours, more jobs? The employment effects of longer working hours
title_sort more hours, more jobs? the employment effects of longer working hours
topic working hours
wage concession
overtime payments
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29753/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29753/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/29753/