Addiction to work: An Inelastic Wage Elasticity of Labour Supply Equals Long Hours of Work

A phenomenon of the last twenty years is the growth of ‘very long hours’ of work, especially amongst high-skilled labour. This is an unexpected reversal of a long trend in the opposite direction. This paper criticises the Beckerian analysis of labour-leisure choice. It argues that the more time is consumed in paid work, the more are preferences for paid work affected by it; thereby creating a vicious cycle of consumption patterns which lead to longer than expected hours of work.