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The Employment-Hours Trade-off: Theory and an Application to the Portuguese Case

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Author Info
Ana Paula Martins

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Abstract

Using traditional production theory, it is possible to estimate production functions in which hours per worker and number of workers hired are treated as endogenous and chosen by the firm, priced respectively by the variable hourly wage and the so-called quasi-fixed unit cost. The available data suggested the use of Cobb-Douglas or CES specifications or the use of two-stage separable technologies, with a second-level Cobb-Douglas being possible. Quasi-fixed costs were associated with legal social security payments, which were also conditioned by the data. The estimates for the Portuguese metal products and engineering industries - using cross-section evidence for 1987 - showed that disaggregation of the labor input is empirically justifiable, and total man-hours employed and the numbers of workers hired are complements in production. Hours per worker respond negatively to the variable hourly wage and positively to the quasi-fixed unit cost. Nevertheless, in our framework, this would be so by construction. Total labor costs increase with both the hourly wage and the quasi-fixed unit costs. Copyright 2004 CEIS, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishing Ltd..

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Publisher Info
Article provided by CEIS, Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini and Blackwell Publishing Ltd in its journal LABOUR.

Volume (Year): 18 (2004)
Issue (Month): 3 (09)
Pages: 465-502
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Handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:18:y:2004:i:3:p:465-502

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  1. Robert Dixon & John Freebairn, 2007. "Hours of Work: A Demand Perspective," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 1022, The University of Melbourne. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-22.

This information is provided to you by IDEAS at the Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Connecticut using RePEc data on a server sponsored by the Society for Economic Dynamics.