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Stop Premature Obsolescence: LessTrash, Fewer Working Hours, Same Pay

Author

Listed:
  • Tommaso Luzzati
  • J. Christopher Proctor
  • S. D'Alessandro

Abstract

About a century ago, Keynes predicted that, thanks to technological progress, today's working week would be reduced to 15 hours. In practice, however, large technological gains seem to have been offset by a substantial shortening of product lifespans. From a standard microeconomic perspective, this is inefficient as more labour and material resources are employed than necessary to deliver a given level of product-provided services. In this paper, we model policies aimed at reducing the current 'throwaway economy' as inducing a positive productivity shock in one economic sector and examine the conditions under which this shock's propagation to other sectors can allow for a reduction in working time, without reducing consumers' well-being, labour compensation, or profits. To this purpose, we first focus on a stylized three sector

Suggested Citation

  • Tommaso Luzzati & J. Christopher Proctor & S. D'Alessandro, 2026. "Stop Premature Obsolescence: LessTrash, Fewer Working Hours, Same Pay," Papers 2607.28371, arXiv.org.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2607.28371
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    File URL: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.28371
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