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Patterns of Work Across the OECD

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Author Info
Giulia Faggio
Stephen Nickell

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Abstract

Market work per person of working age differs widely across the OECD countries and therehave been some significant changes in the last forty years. How to explain this pattern?Taxes are part of the story but much remains to be explained. If we include all the elementsof the social security systems like early retirement benefits, sickness and disability benefitsand unemployment benefits, then we can capture some aspects of the overall pattern but stilla lot remains unexplained. The story favoured by Alesina et al. (CEPR DP.5140, 2005) isthat the nexus of strong unions, generous welfare and social democracy implies both hightaxes and pressure in favour of work-sharing in response to adverse shocks. This story,however, falls foul of the simple fact that most Scandinavian countries now do much morework than the French and Germans despite having stronger unions, more generous welfare,higher taxes and more social democracy. Ultimately, we are forced into the position thatthere is no simple story. Some of the broad patterns can be explained but there remaincountry specific factors which are hard to identify but lead to substantial differences from onecountry to another.

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Paper provided by Centre for Economic Performance, LSE in its series CEP Discussion Papers with number dp0730.

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Date of creation: Jun 2006
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Handle: RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0730

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Related research
Keywords: work; working hours; employment;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Saint-Paul, Gilles, 2004. "Why are European Countries Diverging in their Unemployment Experience?," IDEI Working Papers 269, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Alberto Alesina & Edward L. Glaeser & Bruce Sacerdote, 2005. "Work and Leisure in the U.S. and Europe: Why So Different?," NBER Working Papers 11278, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Francesco Daveri & Guido Tabellini, 2000. "Unemployment, growth and taxation in industrial countries," Economic Policy, CEPR, CES, MSH, vol. 15(30), pages 47-104, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Stephen Nickell, 2003. "Labour Market Institutions and Unemployment in OECD Countries," CESifo DICE Report, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 1(2), pages 13-26, October. [Downloadable!]
  5. Bound, John & Burkhauser, Richard V., 1999. "Economic analysis of transfer programs targeted on people with disabilities," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 51, pages 3417-3528 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Nickell, Stephen, 1997. "Unemployment and Labor Market Rigidities: Europe versus North America," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 55-74, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Winfried Koeniger & Marco Leonardi & Luca Nunziata, 2007. "Labor Market Institutions and Wage Inequality," Industrial and Labor Relations Review, ILR Review, ILR School, Cornell University, vol. 60(3), pages 340-356, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Samuel Bowles & Yongjin Park, 2005. "Emulation, Inequality, and Work Hours: Was Thorsten Veblen Right?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(507), pages F397-F412, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Sakiko Tanaka, 2005. "Parental leave and child health across OECD countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(501), pages F7-F28, 02. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Lawrence Kahn, 2003. "Labour Market Institutions and Unemployment in OECD Countries," CESifo DICE Report, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 1(4), pages 25-32, October. [Downloadable!]
  11. Stephen Nickell & Luca Nunziata & Wolfgang Ochel, 2005. "Unemployment in the OECD Since the 1960s. What Do We Know?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(500), pages 1-27, 01. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Steven J. Davis & Magnus Henrekson, 2004. "Tax Effects on Work Activity, Industry Mix and Shadow Economy Size: Evidence from Rich-Country Comparisons," NBER Working Papers 10509, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Jose Emilio Boscá & Rafael Domenech & Javier Ferri, 2008. "Tax Reforms and Labour-market Performance: An Evaluation for Spain using REMS," Working Papers 0804, International Economics Institute, University of Valencia. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. T. Berger & F. Heylen, 2009. "Differences in hours worked in the OECD: institutions or fiscal policies?," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 09/601, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. [Downloadable!]
  3. L. Rachel Ngai & Christopher A. Pissarides, 2008. "Employment Outcomes in the Welfare State," CEP Discussion Papers dp0856, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE. [Downloadable!]
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