Diminishing Returns at Work focuses on working hours - in the past and in the present, in America and in Britain. John Pencavel illustrates the proportional relationship between hours of work and outcomes such as production and health. Increases in hours of work are shown to result in smaller...

"The book concerns working hours - in the past and in the present, in America and in Britain. The focus is on the relation between hours of work and outcomes such as production and health. Proportional increases in hours of work are shown to result in smaller proportional increases in production...

The increase in the real wages of British workers over the last one hundred years is often attributed to the growth in labour productivity, but this has rarely been confirmed. In the research reported here, this ascription is confronted with annual observations on wages and productivity spanning...