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Option Or Obligation? The Determinants Of Labour Supply Preferences In Britain

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  • René Böheim
  • Mark P. Taylor

Abstract

We examine persistence in work hour constraints using subjective data from the British Household Panel Survey, and investigate the role of job and employer changes in alleviating these constraints. Evidence suggests that 40 per cent of employees prefer to work a different number of hours at their current wage, and the majority of these prefer to work fewer hours. Our estimates also indicate that, although these constraints persist over time, job and employer changes alleviate over–employment particularly among men. Work time preferences are determined by observed job and employer related characteristics, individual demographics, local labour demand and time–invariant unobserved individual–specific effects.

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  • René Böheim & Mark P. Taylor, 2003. "Option Or Obligation? The Determinants Of Labour Supply Preferences In Britain," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 71(2), pages 113-131, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:71:y:2003:i:2:p:113-131
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-9957.00339
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    Cited by:

    1. René Böheim & Mark P. Taylor, 2004. "Actual and Preferred Working Hours," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 42(1), pages 149-166, March.
    2. Mark P. Taylor, 2006. "Tell me why I don't like Mondays: investigating day of the week effects on job satisfaction and psychological well‐being," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 169(1), pages 127-142, January.
    3. Nadia Steiber, 2008. ""How Many Hours Would you Want to Work a Week?": Job Quality and the Omitted Variables Bias in Labour Supply Models," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 121, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    4. Gerold, Stefanie & Nocker, Matthias, 2018. "More Leisure or Higher Pay? A Mixed-methods Study on Reducing Working Time in Austria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 27-36.
    5. Dan Wheatley & Irene Hardill & Bruce Philp, 2008. "Managing reductions in working hours: a study of work-time and leisure preferences in UK industry," NBS Discussion Papers in Economics 2008/5, Economics, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University.
    6. Sarah Brown & J. Sessions & Duncan Watson, 2007. "The contribution of hour constraints to working poverty in Britain," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 20(2), pages 445-463, April.
    7. Genevieve Knight & Zhang Wei, 2015. "Isolating the Determinants of Temporary Agency Worker Use by Firms: An Analysis of Temporary Agency Workers in Australian Aged Care," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 18(2), pages 205-237.
    8. Francis Green & Nicholas Tsitsianis, 2004. "Can the Changing Nature of Jobs Account for National Trends in Job Satisfaction?," Studies in Economics 0406, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    9. Eva Gutiérrez-i-Puigarnau & Jos N van Ommeren, 2015. "Commuting and labour supply revisited," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(14), pages 2551-2563, November.
    10. Böheim, René & Taylor, Mark P., 2004. "And in the Evening She's a Singer with the Band – Second Jobs, Plight or Pleasure?," IZA Discussion Papers 1081, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Stefanie Gerold & Matthias Nocker, 2015. "Reduction of Working Time in Austria. A Mixed Methods Study Relating a New Work Time Policy to Employee Preferences. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 97," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 58139, Juni.

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