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Discussion Paper Details

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Title: The Effects of Labor Market Conditions on Working Time: the US-EU Experience

Author(s): Claudio Michelacci and Josep Pijoan-Mas

Publication Date: May 2007

Keyword(s): human capital, search, unemployment, wage inequality and working hours

Programme Area(s): International Macroeconomics and Labour Economics

Abstract: We consider a labor market search model where, by working longer hours, individuals acquire greater skills and thereby obtain better jobs. We show that job inequality, which leads to within-skill wage differences, gives incentives to work longer hours. By contrast, a higher probability of losing jobs, a longer duration of unemployment, and in general a less tight labor market discourage working time. We show that the different evolution of labor market conditions in the US and in Continental Europe over the last three decades can quantitatively explain the diverging evolution of the number of hours worked per employee across the two sides of the Atlantic. It can also explain why the fraction of prime age male workers working very long hours has increased substantially in the US, after reverting a trend of secular decline.

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Bibliographic Reference

Michelacci, C and Pijoan-Mas, J. 2007. 'The Effects of Labor Market Conditions on Working Time: the US-EU Experience'. London, Centre for Economic Policy Research. https://cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=6314