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Overtime Hours in Great Britain over the Period 1975-1999: A Panel Data Analysis

Author

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  • Kalwij, Adriaan

    (Utrecht School of Economics)

  • Gregory, Mary

    (University of Oxford)

Abstract

Around 40% of the male workforce regularly works 8 to 9 hours a week of paid overtime. This paper investigates the determinants of overtime hours in Britain over the period 1975-1999. For this purpose a panel data Tobit model is estimated using the very large panel of employees from the National Earnings Survey Panel Dataset. The empirical results show that changes in the job-mix across the economy, from high to low overtime jobs rather than within-job changes in the use of overtime, account for most of the apparent decline in the extent of overtime working over the 1990s. Within jobs, the GDP cycle has a significant impact on overtime work, while labour market conditions, represented by the unemployment rate, do not. The elasticity of total working hours with respect to wages is found to be close to zero and with respect to contractual hours close to unity. Furthermore the results show that the decline of unionisation has not altered the use of overtime.

Suggested Citation

  • Kalwij, Adriaan & Gregory, Mary, 2000. "Overtime Hours in Great Britain over the Period 1975-1999: A Panel Data Analysis," IZA Discussion Papers 153, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp153
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    1. Thomas Bauer & Klaus F. Zimmermann, 1999. "Overtime Work and Overtime Compensation in Germany," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 46(4), pages 419-436, September.
    2. Jennifer Hunt, 1999. "Has Work-Sharing Worked in Germany?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(1), pages 117-148.
    3. David N F Bell & Robert A Hart, 1995. "Working Time in Great Britain, 1975-1990," Working Papers Series 95/9, University of Stirling, Division of Economics.
    4. Kalwij, Adriaan S., 2003. "A maximum likelihood estimator based on first differences for a panel data Tobit model with individual specific effects," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 165-172, November.
    5. Millard, Stephen & Scott, Andrew & Sensier, Marianne, 1997. "The Labour Market over the Business Cycle: Can Theory Fit the Facts?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 13(3), pages 70-92, Autumn.
    6. Bauer, Thomas & Zimmermann, Klaus F, 1999. "Overtime Work and Overtime Compensation in Germany," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 46(4), pages 419-436, September.
    7. Behrman, Jere R & Birdsall, Nancy M, 1988. "The Reward for Good Timing: Cohort Effects and Earnings Functions for Brazilian Males," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 70(1), pages 129-135, February.
    8. Trejo, Stephen J, 1991. "The Effects of Overtime Pay Regulation on Worker Compensation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 719-740, September.
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    11. Mundlak, Yair, 1978. "On the Pooling of Time Series and Cross Section Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 69-85, January.
    12. Trejo, Stephen J, 1993. "Overtime Pay, Overtime Hours, and Labor Unions," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(2), pages 253-278, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. M. J. Andrews & T. Schank & R. Simmons, 2005. "Does Worksharing Work? Some Empirical Evidence From The Iab‐Establishment Panel," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 52(2), pages 141-176, May.
    2. Kapteyn, Arie & Kalwij, Adriaan & Zaidi, Asghar, 2004. "The myth of worksharing," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 293-313, June.
    3. Adi Brender & Lior Gallo, 2009. "The Effect of Changes in Wages, GDP, and Workers' Demographic Characteristics on Working Hours," Israel Economic Review, Bank of Israel, vol. 7(1), pages 143-176.
    4. Simmons, R. & Schank, Thorsten & Andrews, Martyn J., 2004. "Does Worksharing Work? Some Empirical Evidence from the IAB Panel," Discussion Papers 25, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Chair of Labour and Regional Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    contractual hours; panel data Tobit model; Overtime work;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C33 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • C44 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Operations Research; Statistical Decision Theory
    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General

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