Global Working Hours

This paper uses labor force surveys from 160 countries to build a new microdatabase on hours worked covering 97% of the world population in cross section. We also construct time series spanning over 20 years in 86 countries. Hours worked per adult slightly decline with GDP per capita but are weakly correlated with development overall. Hours worked by the young (aged 15-19) and elderly (aged 60+) fall with development, driven entirely by growing school attendance and public pension coverage. Hours worked among prime-age adults (aged 20-59) are stable with development but undergo a great gender reshuffling: falling male hours per worker have been exactly offset by increases in female labor force participation in many countries. Labor taxes are strongly negatively correlated with prime-age hours worked. Controlling for government transfers only partly reduces this link, ruling out substitution and income effects on labor supply as the only driver. Controlling for working hours regulations and the size of the formal sector eliminates it, suggesting that regulations also play a large role in reducing intensive hours in higher-income countries. Together, our findings suggest that collective choices and social norms often encoded in public policy powerfully shape hours worked over and above pure economic development.