Working time account is an organization tool that allows firms smoothing their demand for hours employed. Descriptive literature suggests that working time accounts reduce turnover and inhibit increase in unemployment during recessions. In a model of optimal choice of hours by a firm I show that...

Als Arbeit auf Abruf werden Beschäftigungsverhältnisse bezeichnet, bei denen Arbeitnehmer zwar eine festgelegte Dauer der Arbeitszeit haben, zeitlich jedoch nach Bedarf eingesetzt werden können. Noch ist wenig über die Verbreitung von Arbeit auf Abruf bekannt. Es wäre indes voreilig, hier...

Die Erwerbsbeteiligung sowie die Arbeitszeitwünsche von Frauen schwanken stark je nach dem, ob ein Partner oder Kind(er) im Haushalt leben. Bei Männern spielt die Haushaltskonstellation dagegen kaum eine Rolle. Um besser abschätzen zu können, ob es bei der Erwerbstätigkeit von Müttern...

Modern working societies face the challenge to combine the establishments' with the employees' needs for working-time flexibility. The authors investigate the determinants of overtime and different working hours' arrangements using the German Linked Employer-Employee Study of the Socio-Economic...

Working time arrangements are key elements of working conditions and determine the possibilities for employees to balance work with their other life spheres. Therefore, this paper examines the level of working time satisfaction of employees and identifies the factors that may facilitate or...

We use national labor force surveys from 1983 through 2011 to construct hours worked per person on the aggregate level and for different demographic groups for 18 European countries and the US. We find that Europeans work 19% fewer hours than US citizens. Differences in weeks worked and in the...

This paper provides evidence on the effect of employee representation on working time flexibility in private-sector European establishments. A 2002 European Union directive granted information, consultation and representation rights to employees on a range of key business, employment and work...

Achieving low unemployment in an environment of weak growth is a major policy challenge; a more egalitarian distribution of hours worked could be the key to solving it. Whether worksharing actually increases employment, however, has been debated controversially. In this article we present...

Collectively agreed reductions of working hours phased out in Europe in the 1990s. During the last two decades, working time became more flexible and heterogeneous. Working hours of full-time employees in the EU hardly changed. The strong increase in part-time work was the outstanding...

Allowing workers to control their work hours (working-time autonomy) is a controversial policy for worker empowerment, with concerns that range from increased shirking to excessive intensification of work. Empirical evidence, however, supports neither view. Recent studies find that working-time...

The staff scheduling problem in the retail business is considered for which a new mathematical model and new solution methods are introduced. The problem is formalized as a set covering type problem. Columns represent feasible weekly working time patterns of one sales clerk. Rows correspond to...

We use national labor force surveys from 1983 through 2011 to construct hours worked per person on the aggregate level and for different demographic groups for 18 European countries and the US. We find that Europeans work 19% fewer hours than US citizens. Differences in weeks worked and in the...

This contribution investigates whether working time accounts are beneficial for the performance of German establishments. Based on the representative German Establishment Panel of the Institute for Employment Research during the period 2008-2013, effects on productivity, wages, sales, firm size,...

We investigate how Japanese men aged 60-74 adjust their workforce attachment after beginning to receive a public pension. Men who were employees at age 54 gradually move to part-time work or retire after beginning to receive pension benefits; those who continue working are more likely to be...

Eine Flexibilisierung des Rentenübergangs kann unter Umständen zu einer höheren Beschäftigung und zu weiteren Vorteilen sowohl auf individueller als auch auf Firmenebene führen. Bei der Gestaltung eines graduellen Rentenübergangs für Personen unterhalb der Regelaltersgrenze ist vor allem...

Standard hours, a major component of total work hours, vary considerably across Europe. Many countries lowered their standard work hours during the 1980s and 1990s, attempting to boost employment by splitting up a fixed number of worker-hours among more workers. Germany has seen a partial...

This study brings together results of the establishment and the individual level to get a better understanding of the use of working-time accounts in Germany. Using data from the Establishment Panel we first show that industrial relations factors, employment-contract characteristics and...

Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011), the author scrutinizes the relations between womenś and menś flexibility and autonomy in working time and two central work outcomes: overtime and income. Previously, research on flexibility and...

Gute Arbeit ist nicht denkbar ohne gute Arbeitszeiten. Das gilt erst recht mit Blick auf die Digitalisierung, denn sie fördert den Trend der völligen Entgrenzung und Flexibilisierung von Arbeitszeiten und verstärkt Ansprüche der Arbeitgeber auf schrankenlose Verfügbarkeit der Ware...