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Varieties of the rat race: Working hours in the age of abundance

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  • Behringer, Jan
  • Gonzalez Granda, Martin
  • van Treeck, Till

Abstract

We ask why working hours in the rich world have not declined more sharply or even risen at times since the early 1980s, despite a steady increase in productivity, and why they vary so much across rich countries. We use an internationally comparable database on working hours (Bick et al., 2019) and conduct panel data estimations for a sample of 17 European countries and the United States over the period 1983-2019. We find that high or increasing top-end income inequality, decentralized labor relations, and limited government provision of education and other in-kind services contribute to long working hours. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that upward-looking status comparisons in positional consumption ("Veblen effects") contribute to a "rat race" of long working hours that is more or less pronounced in different varieties of capitalism.

Suggested Citation

  • Behringer, Jan & Gonzalez Granda, Martin & van Treeck, Till, 2022. "Varieties of the rat race: Working hours in the age of abundance," ifso working paper series 17, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Socioeconomics (ifso).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifsowp:17
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    working hours; Veblen effects; income inequality; varieties of capitalism;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • P50 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Comparative Economic Systems - - - General

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