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Extreme working hours in Western Europe and North America: A new aspect of polarization

Author

Listed:
  • Anna S. Burger
Abstract
This paper analyzes the trends and root causes of extreme working hours in sixteen Western European countries, Canada, and the United States between 1970 and 2010. Earlier literature has revealed increasing trends in extreme working hours in the United States and recognized the negative repercussions of this new aspect of labor market polarization. As European average working hours have declined over the past decades, scholars have turned little attention to the analysis of extreme working hours in European countries. First, the article documents diverging patterns of extreme working hours in Western Europe. Whereas the Scandinavian and French ratios of workers with extreme hours remained very low, most other countries in Western Europe exhibit significantly higher ratios of extreme workers after the beginning of the 1990s than in the previous two decades. Second, the article detects the development of two diverging trajectories in the advanced capitalist world: one with a strong and stable labor regulation along with a balanced working hour profile and one with gradual deregulation along with an increasing ratio of long work weeks. Finally, using a series of pooled cross-section OLS estimations, the article tests five specific hypotheses, motivated by theories of the welfare state and political economy theories of globalization. The results provide strong empirical evidence for the notion that patterns of extreme working hours are not inherent in post-industrial development. The article uses data from the author’s extreme working hours standardized meta-database which had been compiled from two large micro data collections: the Luxembourg Income Study database (LIS) and the Multinational Time Use Study (MTUS).

Suggested Citation

  • Anna S. Burger, 2015. "Extreme working hours in Western Europe and North America: A new aspect of polarization," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 92, European Institute, LSE.
    • Handle: RePEc:eiq:eileqs:92
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    File URL: http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/LEQS/LEQSPaper92.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alberto Alesina & Edward Glaeser & Bruce Sacerdote, 2005. "Work and Leisure in the U. S. and Europe: Why so Different?," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2068, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    2. Olivier Blanchard & Francesco Giavazzi, 2003. "Macroeconomic Effects of Regulation and Deregulation in Goods and Labor Markets," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 879-907.
    3. Mary T. Coleman & John Pencavel, 1993. "Changes in Work Hours of Male Employees, 1940–1988," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(2), pages 262-283, January.
    4. Robert Andersen, 2012. "GINI DP 47: Support for Democracy in Cross-National Perspective: The Detrimental Effect of Economic Inequality," GINI Discussion Papers 47, AIAS, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies.
    5. Robert Vergeer & Alfred Kleinknecht, 2010. "The impact of labor market deregulation on productivity: a panel data analysis of 19 OECD countries (1960-2004)," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(2), pages 371-408, January.
    6. Dani Rodrik, 1998. "Has Globalization Gone Too Far?," Challenge, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(2), pages 81-94, March.
    7. Mary T. Coleman & John Pencavel, 1993. "Trends in Market Work Behavior of Women since 1940," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 46(4), pages 653-676, July.
    8. Jerry Jacobs & Kathleen Green, 1998. "Who Are the Overworked Americans?," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(4), pages 442-459.
    9. Landers, Renee M & Rebitzer, James B & Taylor, Lowell J, 1996. "Rat Race Redux: Adverse Selection in the Determination of Work Hours in Law Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 329-348, June.
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    Cited by:

    1. Schneider, Roland, 2018. "Innovative Arbeitszeitpolitik im Dienstleistungssektor: Antworten der Dienstleistungsgewerkschaften auf arbeitszeitpolitische Herausforderungen," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 091, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
    2. Schneider, Roland, 2018. "Innovative working time policy in the service sector: Responses to working time policy challenges by service sector unions," Working Paper Forschungsförderung 091e, Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.

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    Keywords

    extreme working hours; working hour polarization; working hour inequality; labor regulation; welfare state;
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