The shorter workweek and worker wellbeing: Evidence from Portugal and France

Abstract

Mandatory reductions in the workweek can be used by governments to attempt to reduce unemployment, and are usually assumed to improve the well-being of workers. Nevertheless, the net impact of shorter workweeks on worker welfare is ambiguous ex ante and little empirical effort has been devoted to identify how worker satisfaction changes with mandatory reductions in working time. Using data from the European Community Household Panel, this paper evaluates the impact of the exogenous reductions in weekly working hours induced by reforms implemented in Portugal and France. Difference-indifference estimation results suggest that reduced working hours generated significant and robust increases in job and leisure satisfaction of the workers affected in both countries, with the rise in the former mainly being explained by greater satisfaction with working hours and working conditions.

Do working hours affect health? Evidence from statutory workweek regulations in Germany

“…Hamermesh et al (2014) find increased life satisfaction among affected workers in Japan and Korea. Similarly, Lepinteur (2016) shows that reduced workweek significantly improves job and leisure satisfaction in France and Portugal. Using the same changes in statutory workweek in the German public sector as we do, Collewet and Loog (2015) find suggestive evidence of an inverted U-shaped effect of working hours on life satisfaction.…”

“…While both studies conclude about adverse health consequences of additional working hours, their focus is predominantly on health-related behavious (e.g., smoking, physical activity, body mass index). Related research points to positive effects of statutory workweek reductions on workers' satisfaction from life, job and leisure (e.g., Hamermesh et al, 2014;Lepinteur, 2016), but none of the studies provides evidence on the potential impact on health-related well-being.…”

Four Decades of the Economics of Happiness: Where Next?

“…Clark () was an early attempt at this kind of calculation on data from the first (1991) wave of the BHPS, producing a reasonable‐sounding figure of £8.60 per hour . A far more recent estimation of this type, appealing to an exogenous movement in hours of work due to the reductions in the standard workweek in France and Portugal, appears in Lepinteur (). The same approach is taken for shorter workweeks in Japan and Korea in Hamermesh et al .…”

The 2018-2021 working time reform in Korea: A preliminary assessment

“…As a result, it mainly affects those working very long hours, which is a relatively small group but also one for which working hours are more likely to entail adverse health and productivity effects. [25]). As one would expect, the effects of the reform were concentrated among those working more than 44 hours before the reform, which were mostly male breadwinners (Lee, Kawaguchi and Hamermesh, 2012 [26]; Kawaguchi, Lee and Hamermesh, 2013 [22]; Jeong Son, 2016 [23]).…”