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The Labour Market Returns to Sleep

Author

Listed:
  • Joan Costa-Font

    (LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science, IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit - Institute of Labor Economics, CESifo - Center for Economic Studies and Ifo for Economic Research - CESifo Group Munich)

  • Sarah Fleche

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, CEP - LSE - Centre for Economic Performance - LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE - London School of Economics and Political Science, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Ricardo Pagan

    (Universidad de Málaga [Málaga] = University of Málaga [Málaga])

Abstract

The proportion of people sleeping less than the daily-recommended hours has increased. Yet, we know little about the labour market returns to sleep. We use longitudinal data from Germany and exploit exogenous variation in sleep duration induced by time and local variations in sunset time. We find that a 1-hour increase in weekly sleep increases employment by 1.6 percentage points and weekly earnings by 3.4%. Most of this earnings effect comes from productivity improvements, while the number of working hours decreases with sleep time. We identify one mechanism driving these effects, namely the better mental health workers experience from sleeping more hours.

Suggested Citation

  • Joan Costa-Font & Sarah Fleche & Ricardo Pagan, 2022. "The Labour Market Returns to Sleep," Working Papers halshs-04084107, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-04084107
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-04084107
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      by maximorossi in NEP-LTV blog on 2023-05-23 18:18:44

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    sleep; employment; productivity; mental health; sunset times;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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