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Hours and Wages

Author

Listed:
  • Bick, Alexander
  • Blandin, Adam
  • Rogerson, Richard

Abstract

We document two robust features of the cross-sectional distribution of usual weekly hours and hourly wages. First, usual weekly hours are heavily concentrated around 40 hours, while at the same time a substantial share of total hours come from individuals who work more than 50 hours. Second, mean hourly wages are non-monotonic across the usual hours distribution, with a peak at 50 hours. We develop and estimate a model of labor supply to account for these features. The novel feature of our model is that earnings are non-linear in hours, with the extent of nonlinearity varying over the hours distribution. Our estimates imply significant wage penalties for individuals that deviate from 40 hours in either direction, leading to a large mass of individuals that work 40 hours and are not very responsive to shocks. This has important implications for the role of labor supply as a mechanism for self-insurance in a standard heterogeneous agent-incomplete markets model and for empirical strategies designed to estimate labor supply parameters.

Suggested Citation

  • Bick, Alexander & Blandin, Adam & Rogerson, Richard, 2022. "Hours and Wages," CEPR Discussion Papers 17068, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17068
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    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Etienne Lalé, 2025. "Search and multiple jobholding," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 80(3), pages 891-939, November.
    3. John Bailey Jones & Yue Li, 2023. "Social Security Reform with Heterogeneous Mortality," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 48, pages 320-344, April.
    4. Paula A. Calvo & Ilse Lindenlaub & Ana Reynoso, 2021. "Marriage Market and Labor Market Sorting," NBER Working Papers 28883, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Iván Fernández‐Val & Aico van Vuuren & Francis Vella & Franco Peracchi, 2024. "Hours worked and the US distribution of real annual earnings 1976–2019," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 659-678, June.
    6. Iván Fernández‐Val & Aico van Vuuren & Francis Vella & Franco Peracchi, 2024. "Hours worked and the US distribution of real annual earnings 1976–2019," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(4), pages 659-678, June.
    7. Titan Alon & Matthias Doepke & Jane Olmstead-Rumsey, 2020. "This Time It's Different: The Role of Women's Employment in a Pandemic Recession," Working Papers 2020-057, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    8. Jeffrey T. Denning & Brian A. Jacob & Lars J. Lefgren & Christian vom Lehn, 2022. "The Return to Hours Worked within and across Occupations: Implications for the Gender Wage Gap," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 75(5), pages 1321-1347, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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