We evaluate a temporary public sector employment program targeted at individuals with weak labor market attachment, applying dynamic inverse probability weighting to account for dynamic selection. We show that the program is successful in increasing employment and reducing social assistance....

This paper examines the quality of quarterly records on work hours collected from employers in the State of Washington to administer the unemployment insurance (UI) system, specifically to determine eligibility for UI. We subject the administrative records to four "trials," all of which suggest...

We ask why working hours in the rich world have not declined more sharply or even risen at times since the early 1980s, despite a steady increase in productivity, and why they vary so much across rich countries. We use an internationally comparable database on working hours (Bick et al., 2019)...

Seit Jahrzehnten praktizieren zahlreiche Unternehmen in Europa und den USA eine räumliche und zeitliche Flexibilisierung von Arbeit, die durch digitale Technologien gestützt wird. Als Präventionsmaßnahme zum Infektionsschutz gewann das Arbeiten von zuhause in den letzten beiden Jahren eine...

We propose a model to evaluate the U.K.’s zero-hours contract (ZHC) – a contract that exempts employers from the requirement to provide any minimum working hours, and allows workers to decline any workload. We find quantitatively mixed welfare effects of ZHCs. On one hand they unlock job...

Germany and the United States pursued different economic strategies to minimise the impact of the Coronavirus Crisis on the labour market. Germany focused on safeguarding existing jobs through the use of internal flexibility measures, especially short-time work (STW). The United States relied on...

Striking a balance between the work one is involved in to sustain life and the life itself, is a strenuous task for almost every individual. It transcends all kinds of differences among human beings, whether the difference is related to gender, age, type of organisation to which one is attached,...

We investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on labor activity using real-time data from millions of GitHub users around the world. We show that the pandemic triggered a sharp pattern of labor reallocation at both the global and regional level. Users were more likely to work on weekends...

This paper examines the effect of a new maximum work hour restriction introduced in South Korea in 2018 that limited maximum working hours from 68 h/week to 52 h/week. I use difference-in-differences analysis with continuous treatment measuring the prevalence of those working longer than 52...

Struggling to attract talent, companies are scrambling to offer schedule flexibility. Analyzing data from more than 44 million job-application decisions across occupations and companies from a major job-search platform, we investigate how offering or requiring worktime flexibility affects worker...

Purpose: The research paper focused on the relationship between flexible working arrangements, work-life balance, and job satisfaction in Karachi public sector universities. The purpose of this research is to investigate the null hypothesis that there is no relationship between flexible working...

The forced remote working relationships experienced during the COVID-19 pandemics made employers and employees more aware of the productivity gains arising from the digital revolution. To investigate the characteristics of such gains, we model firms' production allowing companies to choose among...

The main objectives of this study are to take into account the effects of COVID-19 on labor market functioning, and to evaluate the effects of policies regarding working time reduction, in terms of both containing the spread of infection and economic activity. Accordingly, we describe a...

There have been dramatic changes in the patterns of work among people in their 50s and 60s over the last 50 years. The gradual increases in employment since the mid-1990s are generally welcome. A longer working life boosts household incomes, as people are reliant on their wages and salaries for...

According to Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data, inequality in gross monthly earnings in Germany increased significantly between 1993 and 2003 and has been stagnating at a high level since 2008. As this Weekly Report shows, the increase is not being driven by higher hourly wage inequality, but...

We ask why working hours in the rich world have not declined more sharply or even risen at times since the early 1980s, despite a steady increase in productivity, and why they vary so much across rich countries. We use an internationally comparable database on working hours (Bick et al., 2019)...

The teleworkability of jobs - whether they can and will be performed remotely - has been increasingly contested in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. To explain which jobs are teleworkable and why, we emphasize the institutional context of a job, including differences among firms, union...

A large body of research links performance pay to poorer worker health. The exact mechanism generating this link remains in doubt. We examine a common suspect, that performance pay causes employees to work longer hours in pursuit of higher pay. Using representative data for the UK, we...

In this paper, we exploit a panel of industry-level data in European countries to study the economic impact of national reductions in usual weekly working hours between 1995 and 2007. Our identification strategy relies on the five national reforms that took place over this period and on initial...

In Canada, the fraction of workers holding multiple jobs has almost tripled since the mid-1970s. In this paper, we document this historical change and provide a comprehensive account of its dynamics. We use restricted-access panel micro-data from the Canadian labour force survey to construct...

This paper uses Canadian matched employer-employee data to show that working hours are gross complements in production rather than perfect substitutes, as is typically assumed. We exploit within-establishment and individual-level variation in hours and wages to document novel evidence consistent...

We study the consequences of a working time reduction (WTR hereafter) in a growth model with efficiency wages and an essential natural resource (natural capital). Considering that technical progress cannot reduce the resource content of final production to zero, we show that the effects of a WTR...

Evidence shows that working time mismatch, i.e. the difference between actual and desired working hours, is negatively related to employees' job satisfaction. Using longitudinal data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we examine the potential moderating effect of working time autonomy on this...

Few skilled workers in the UK have flexible working time - GPs are the exception - most can only choose between unemployment, or full-time work, which has changed little in recent years, while part time work is mainly unskilled. This market rigidity imposes major welfare losses, in contrast to...

We use data from the 2019 EU Labor Force Survey to study gender and parenthood gaps in two dimensions of flexibility in working time arrangements in 25 European countries. We find that overall in Europe, there is no statistically significant gender difference in access to flexible work...

Eine weitreichende Flexibilisierung der Arbeitszeit wird von verschiedenen politischen Akteuren gefordert. Anhand des nationalen und internationalen Forschungsstandes zeigt dieser Report, welche positiven, aber auch negativen Folgen flexible Arbeitszeiten (inklusive Homeoffice bzw. mobile...

This paper analyses the structures and patterns, dimensions and interest relations behind 200 years of working time negotiations and conflicts, based on historical and contemporary literature and research, mainly but not exclusively in Germany. One main thesis is that 'new' flexibilization...

Die vorliegende Study geht der Frage nach, inwiefern Arbeitszeitkonten die Zeitautonomie von Beschäftigten erhöhen. Anhand des Ländervergleichs werden Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten in Deutschland und Frankreich mit Blick auf Zeitautonomie herausgearbeitet. Basis der Untersuchung sind 587...

We analyze the relationship between temporal flexibility at work (i.e., the ability to vary or change the time of beginning or ending work) and the motherhood wage gap of working parents, in the US. To that end, we first characterize temporal flexibility at work using the 2017-2018 Leave and Job...