IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp10103.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Recovery from Work and the Productivity of Working Hours

Author

Listed:
  • Pencavel, John

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

Observations on munition workers are organized to examine the relationship between their output each week, their working hours and days each week, and their working hours and days in adjacent weeks. The hypothesis is that workers need to recover from work and a long working week results in greater fatigue and stress and yet provides insufficient time for recuperation before the next week's work opens. Workers require time off the job to restore their physical, mental, and emotional capacities and, if a long working week provides inadequate time to repair, their subsequent work performance suffers.

Suggested Citation

  • Pencavel, John, 2016. "Recovery from Work and the Productivity of Working Hours," IZA Discussion Papers 10103, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp10103
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp10103.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:ilo:ilowps:470847 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Golden, Lonnie., 2012. "The effects of working time on productivity and firm performance : a research synthesis paper," ILO Working Papers 994708473402676, International Labour Organization.
    3. John Pencavel, 2015. "The Productivity of Working Hours," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(589), pages 2052-2076, December.
    4. Nyland,Chris, 1989. "Reduced Worktime and the Management of Production," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521345477.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Giorgio d'Agostino & Michele Raitano & Margherita Scarlato, 2022. "Job mobility and heterogeneous returns to apprenticeship training in Italy," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 391-423, June.
    2. Lukács, Bence & Antal, Miklós, 2023. "The practical feasibility of working time reduction: Do we have sufficient data?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    3. Collewet, Marion & Sauermann, Jan, 2017. "Working hours and productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 96-106.
    4. Jed DeVaro, 2022. "Performance pay, working hours, and health‐related absenteeism," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 327-352, October.
    5. Nicola Breugst & Holger Patzelt & Dean A. Shepherd, 2020. "When is Effort Contagious in New Venture Management Teams? Understanding the Contingencies of Social Motivation Theory," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(8), pages 1556-1588, December.
    6. Argyro Avgoustaki & Hans T. W. Frankort, 2019. "Implications of Work Effort and Discretion for Employee Well-Being and Career-Related Outcomes: An Integrative Assessment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 72(3), pages 636-661, May.
    7. DeVaro, Jed & Kim, Jin-Hyuk & Wagman, Liad & Wolff, Ran, 2018. "Motivation and performance of user-contributors: Evidence from a CQA forum," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 56-65.
    8. Della Giusta, Marina & Jewell, Sarah, 2018. "Working for nothing: personality, time allocation and earnings in the UK," MPRA Paper 91481, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Pencavel, 2016. "Recovery from Work and the Productivity of Working Hours," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(332), pages 545-563, October.
    2. Collewet, Marion & Sauermann, Jan, 2017. "Working hours and productivity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 96-106.
    3. Peter Dolton, 2017. "Working hours: Past, present, and future," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 406-406, November.
    4. Jed DeVaro, 2022. "Performance pay, working hours, and health‐related absenteeism," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 327-352, October.
    5. Lonnie Golden & Stuart Glosser, 2013. "Work sharing as a potential policy tool for creating more and better employment: A review of the evidence," Chapters, in: Jon C. Messenger & Naj Ghosheh (ed.), Work Sharing during the Great Recession, chapter 7, pages 203-258, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Dora Gicheva, 2020. "Occupational Social Value and Returns to Long Hours," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(347), pages 682-712, July.
    7. Claudia Kröll & Stephan Nüesch, 2017. "The Effects of Flexible Work Practices on Employee Attitudes: Evidence from a Large-Scale Panel Study in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 906, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    8. Hung, Rudy, 1996. "Using compressed workweeks to reduce work commuting," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 11-19, January.
    9. Christensen, Brant E. & Newton, Nathan J. & Wilkins, Michael S., 2021. "How do team workloads and team staffing affect the audit? Archival evidence from U.S. audits," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    10. Karsten, L., 1997. "Vortrag Arbeitszeitmanagement : eine historische Skizze am Institut für ProjektManagement und Wirtschaftsinformatik (IPMI) der Universität Bremen am 23/4/1991," Research Report 97A02, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    11. Hart, Robert A., 2019. "Labor Productivity during the Great Depression in UK Manufacturing," IZA Discussion Papers 12379, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    12. Peter Frase & Janet Gornick, 2009. "The Time Divide in Cross-National Perspective: The Work Week, Gender and Education in 17 Countries," LIS Working papers 526, LIS Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg.
    13. Kentaro Asai, 2022. "Working Hour Reform, Labor Demand and Productivity," PSE Working Papers halshs-03728157, HAL.
    14. Michael Beckmann & Thomas Cornelissen, 2014. "Self-Managed Working Time and Employee Effort: Microeconometric Evidence," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 636, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    15. Mario Bossler & Philipp Grunau, 2020. "Asymmetric information in external versus internal promotions," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 59(6), pages 2977-2998, December.
    16. Sato, Kaori & Kuroda, Sachiko & Owan, Hideo, 2020. "Mental health effects of long work hours, night and weekend work, and short rest periods," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    17. Simone d’alessandro & Tiziano Distefano & Guilherme Spinato Morlin & Davide Villani, 2023. "Policy Responses to Labour-Saving Technologies: Basic Income, Job Guarantee, and Working Time Reduction," JRC Working Papers on Social Classes in the Digital Age 2023-09, Joint Research Centre.
    18. DeVaro, Jed & Kim, Jin-Hyuk & Wagman, Liad & Wolff, Ran, 2018. "Motivation and performance of user-contributors: Evidence from a CQA forum," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 56-65.
    19. Marta Angelici & Paola Profeta, 2020. "Smart-working: Work Flexibility Without Constraints," CHILD Working Papers Series 77 JEL Classification: J1, Centre for Household, Income, Labour and Demographic Economics (CHILD) - CCA.
    20. Su, Qida & Wang, David Z.W., 2020. "On the commute travel pattern with compressed work schedule," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 334-356.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    working hours; output; productivity; recovery;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • N34 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: 1913-

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:iza:izadps:dp10103. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.