IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/spr/conchp/978-3-7908-2185-7_1.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Topics for Comparative Research on Operating Hours in the EU

In: Comparative Analyses of Operating Hours and Working Times in the European Union

Author

Listed:
  • Lei Delsen

    (Radboud University Nijmegen)

  • Frank Bauer
  • Gilbert Cette

    (Banque de France)

  • Mark Smith

    (Grenoble Ecole de Management)

Abstract

This volume is the second book based on comparative and comprehensive data from the 2003 representative European Union Company survey of Operating hours, Working times and Employment (EUCOWE) in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. This publication complements and builds on the first book published in 2007 in which the methodology and the descriptive national findings, as well as some first comparative analytical results, of the EUCOWE project were presented.1 In several of the countries studied the survey represented one of the first dedicated studies on the operating time. The EUCOWE survey was the first attempt to collect cross-national comparative data on operating hours and opening times and as such represents an innovative source of information of working patterns, establishment behaviour and competitiveness in the EU. At the firm and industry level, as well as the macroeconomic level, operating hours are one of the essential determinants of productivity and competitiveness not to mention the standard of living of the wider population.2 In essence operating hours, opening times and service hours can be considered as central to the behaviour of establishments in relation to their clients and, as a result, the organisation of employment and working time of their employees. The extent to which organisations are required to serve clients within and outside “normal” working hours will also help shape the duration and intensity of utilisation of capital. While establishments will have some freedom in determining how they deal with their specific operating time requirements, and any fluctuations within those hours, they will also be subject to regulation and policy at the national and pan-national level. Thus operating hours are central to policy debates at both the European and national level. Concerns over the competitiveness of European firms and the reconciliation of work and family life are all impacted upon by operating hours of the establishments where employees work.

Suggested Citation

  • Lei Delsen & Frank Bauer & Gilbert Cette & Mark Smith, 2009. "Topics for Comparative Research on Operating Hours in the EU," Contributions to Economics, in: Mark Smith & Gilbert Cette & Frank Bauer & Lei Delsen (ed.), Comparative Analyses of Operating Hours and Working Times in the European Union, chapter 1, pages 1-14, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:conchp:978-3-7908-2185-7_1
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-7908-2185-7_1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:conchp:978-3-7908-2185-7_1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.