IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/jhriss/v60y2025i1p37-69.html

Managing Long Working Hours: Evidence from a Management Practice Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Mari Tanaka
  • Taisuke Kameda
  • Takuma Kawamoto
  • Shigeru Sugihara
  • Ryo Kambayashi

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between management practices and long working hours by combining large-scale establishment panel data on management practices with the corresponding employee data on overtime hours in the manufacturing sector. We find that the adoption of more structured bonus and promotion practices is correlated with an increasing probability of workers working more than short-to-medium overtime hours. In addition, the adoption of more structured production monitoring and targeting practices is associated with a lower probability of workers working long overtime hours, resulting in narrowing disparities in overtime hours across workers within establishments.

Suggested Citation

  • Mari Tanaka & Taisuke Kameda & Takuma Kawamoto & Shigeru Sugihara & Ryo Kambayashi, 2025. "Managing Long Working Hours: Evidence from a Management Practice Survey," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 60(1), pages 37-69.
  • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:60:y:2025:i:1:p:37-69
    Note: DOI:
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/60/1/37
    Download Restriction: A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cygan-Rehm, Kamila & Wunder, Christoph, 2018. "Do working hours affect health? Evidence from statutory workweek regulations in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 162-171.
    2. Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Ziegler, Alexandre, 2003. "Asymmetric information about workers' productivity as a cause for inefficient long working hours," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 727-747, December.
    3. Miriam Bruhn & Dean Karlan & Antoinette Schoar, 2018. "The Impact of Consulting Services on Small and Medium Enterprises: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Mexico," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(2), pages 635-687.
    4. Ivan A. Canay, 2011. "A simple approach to quantile regression for panel data," Econometrics Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 14(3), pages 368-386, October.
    5. Greer K. Gosnell & John A. List & Robert D. Metcalfe, 2020. "The Impact of Management Practices on Employee Productivity: A Field Experiment with Airline Captains," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(4), pages 1195-1233.
    6. Kambayashi, Ryo & Ohyama, Atsushi & Hori, Nobuko, 2021. "Management practices and productivity in Japan: Evidence from six industries in JP MOPS," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. Hamermesh, Daniel S. & Kawaguchi, Daiji & Lee, Jungmin, 2017. "Does labor legislation benefit workers? Well-being after an hours reduction," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 1-12.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Sule Alan & Gozde Corekcioglu & Matthias Sutter, 2023. "Improving Workplace Climate in Large Corporations: A Clustered Randomized Intervention," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(1), pages 151-203.
    2. Islam,Asif Mohammed & Gatti,Roberta V., 2024. "Dysfunctional Family Management : Family-Managed Businesses and the Quality of Management Practices," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10684, The World Bank.
    3. Miki Kohara & Taisei Noda, 2023. "The causal effects of working time on mental health: The effectiveness of the law reform raising the overtime wage penalty," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 638-664, December.
    4. Nicholas Bloom & Leonardo Iacovone & Mariana Pereira-López & John Van Reenen, 2026. "Management and Misallocation in Mexico," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 429-456, April.
    5. Jing Cai & Shing-Yi Wang, 2023. "Improving Management Through Worker Evaluations: Evidence from Auto Manufacturing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 137(4), pages 2459-2497.
    6. Daniela Scur & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen & Renata Lemos & Nicholas Bloom, 2021. "The World Management Survey at 18: lessons and the way forward," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 37(2), pages 231-258.
    7. Tonke, Sebastian, 2020. "Imperfect Procedural Knowledge: Evidence from a Field Experiment to Encourage Water Conservation," VfS Annual Conference 2020 (Virtual Conference): Gender Economics 224536, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    8. Girum Abebe & Marcel Fafchamps & Michael Koelle & Simon Quinn, 2019. "Learning Management Through Matching: A Field Experiment Using Mechanism Design," CSAE Working Paper Series 2019-11, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    9. Burdin, Gabriel & Kambayashi, Ryo & Kato, Takao, 2024. "The Impact of Overtime Limits on Firms and Workers: Evidence from Japan's Work Style Reform," IZA Discussion Papers 17583, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Weidmann, Ben & Vecci, Joseph & Said, Farah & Bhalotra, Sonia & Adhvaryu, Achyuta & Nyshadham, Anant & Tamayo, Jorge & Deming, David, 2024. "How Do You Identify A Good Manager?," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 715, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    11. Berniell, Inés & Bietenbeck, Jan, 2020. "The effect of working hours on health," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    12. Bassi,Vittorio & Kahn,Matthew Edwin & Lozano Gracia,Nancy & Porzio,Tommaso & Sorin,Jeanne, 2021. "Pollution in Ugandan Cities : Do Managers Avoid It or Adapt in Place ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9743, The World Bank.
    13. Imani, Yusuke & Ohyama, Atsushi, 2022. "The Roles of Structured Management in the Formation of Transactional Relationships," TDB-CAREE Discussion Paper Series E-2021-07, Teikoku Databank Center for Advanced Empirical Research on Enterprise and Economy, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.
    14. Cuesta, Lizeth & Ruiz, Yomara, 2021. "Efecto de la globalización sobre la desigualdad. Un estudio global para 104 países usando regresiones cuantílicas [Effect of globalization on inequality. A global study for 104 countries using quantile regressions]," MPRA Paper 111022, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Costa-Font, Joan & Saenz de Miera Juarez, Belen, 2018. "Working Times and Overweight: Tight Schedules, Weaker Fitness?," IZA Discussion Papers 11702, IZA Network @ LISER.
    16. González-Uribe, Juanita & Reyes, Santiago, 2021. "Identifying and boosting “Gazelles”: Evidence from business accelerators," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 260-287.
    17. Margaret Miller & Julia Reichelstein & Christian Salas & Bilal Zia, 2015. "Can You Help Someone Become Financially Capable? A Meta-Analysis of the Literature," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 30(2), pages 220-246.
    18. Jorge E. Galán & María Rodríguez Moreno, 2020. "At-risk measures and financial stability," Financial Stability Review, Banco de España, issue Autumn.
    19. World Bank, "undated". "Shifting Gears," World Bank Publications - Reports 36317, The World Bank Group.
    20. Nicholas Bloom & Jonathan S. Hartley & Raffaella Sadun & Rachel Schuh & John Van Reenen, 2025. "Management and firm dynamism," CEP Discussion Papers dp2102, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • M10 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - General
    • M50 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - General

    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:uwp:jhriss:v:60:y:2025:i:1:p:37-69. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://jhr.uwpress.org/ .

    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.