The effect of hours of work on social interaction

Abstract

The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peerreviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Bowling Alone or Bowling at All? The Effect of Unemployment on Social Participation

“…Most of them are broadly in line with previous findings (see e.g. Alesina & La Ferrara (2000), or Saffer & Lamiraud (2012)). Social participation is increasing with individuals' health status and the amount of available leisure time, consistent with basic economic principles.…”

“…They conclude that social capital is lower in more unequal and heterogenous communities. More recently, Saffer & Lamiraud (2012) study the effect of hours of work and human capital on social participation using an exogenous decline in hours of work in France due to a new employment law. Their results indicate that human capital is important while there is no effect form the additional hours of leisure tionship between unemployment and social participation.…”

Wage Determination in Social Occupations: The Role of Individual Social Capital

“…Examples of exceptions to this generalization are Saffer and Lamiraud (2008) who investigate the relationship between hours of work and social interaction with friends and family and Ngom (2003) who performs an analysis similar to that in this paper, although limited to the analysis of men only; he finds no relationship between social capital investments (instrumented by the number of club or group activities and the number of hours spent on social activities) and either selection into social occupations or earnings in those occupations.…”

Work and Leisure: A History of Ideas

“…On average, French workers became less satisfied with their working hours following the new legislation (Estevau and Sa, 2006). In addition, contrary to expectations, there have been little or no impact on leisure time spent on social interactions (Saffer and Lamiraud, 2008). Boisard (2004) ascribes this failure to "a strong illusion in France, concerning the possibilities of controlling social and economic reality through legislation.…”

“…Men who volunteered were most likely to engage in general labor (11.5 percent) or to coach, referee, or supervise sports teams (10.2 percent), while women volunteers were most likely to raise funds (12.5 percent) or tutor and teach (12.5 percent). Volunteers tend to be of working age (35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53)(54), employed, married and highly educated, showing that they are willing to contribute time even though their cost of time is high. Much of this volunteering is done in a social context, such as church school and community centers, and most volunteers reported that were asked to volunteer rather than initiated it (Freeman, 1977).…”