Working time autonomy is often accompanied by output-based incentives to counterbalance the loss of monitoring that comes with granting autonomy. However, in such settings, overprovision of effort could arise if workers are uncertain whether their performance suffices to secure the output-based...

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....

In transportation and logistic applications, scheduling hours of service for multiple, interdependent truck drivers to ensure compliance with regulatory resting requirements and service time windows is an extremely challenging task. Models previously designed to schedule truck drivers with...

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...

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...

The vast literature on earnings inequality has so far largely ignored the role played by hours of work. This paper argues that in order to understand earnings dispersion we need to consider not only the dispersion of hourly wages but also inequality in hours worked as well as the correlation...

Flexible work arrangements are on the rise in many countries, ranging from Germany's mini-jobs to UK's zero-hours contracts. These contracts allow for quick labor demand adjustments and are also seen as a way to discourage undeclared work, and more than 10 years ago Italy introduced what was...

The vast literature on earnings inequality has so far largely ignored the role played by hours of work. This paper argues that in order to understand earnings dispersion we need to consider not only the dispersion of hourly wages but also inequality in hours worked as well as the correlation...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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)...

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)...

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...

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...

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...