IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/diw/diwsop/diw_sp424.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Work Hours Constraints and Health

Author

Listed:
  • David Bell
  • Steffen Otterbach
  • Alfonso Sousa-Poza

Abstract

The issue of whether employees who work more hours than they want to suffer adverse health consequences is important not only at the individual level but also for governmental formation of work time policy. Our study investigates this question by analyzing the impact of the discrepancy between actual and desired work hours on self-perceived health outcomes in Germany and the United Kingdom. Based on nationally representative longitudinal data, our results show that work-hour mismatches (i.e., differences between actual and desired hours) have negative effects on workers´ health. In particular, we show that "overemployment" - working more hours than desired - has negative effects on different measures of self-perceived health.

Suggested Citation

  • David Bell & Steffen Otterbach & Alfonso Sousa-Poza, 2011. "Work Hours Constraints and Health," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 424, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    • Handle: RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.391261.de/diw_sp0424.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steffen Otterbach, 2010. "Mismatches Between Actual and Preferred Work Time: Empirical Evidence of Hours Constraints in 21 Countries," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 143-161, June.
    2. Gregori Baetschmann & Kevin E. Staub & Rainer Winkelmann, 2015. "Consistent estimation of the fixed effects ordered logit model," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 178(3), pages 685-703, June.
    3. Mark Wooden & Diana Warren & Robert Drago, 2009. "Working Time Mismatch and Subjective Well‐being," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(1), pages 147-179, March.
    4. Joachim Merz & Tim Rathjen, 2014. "Time And Income Poverty: An Interdependent Multidimensional Poverty Approach With German Time Use Diary Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(3), pages 450-479, September.
    5. Tobsch, Verena & Matiaske, Wenzel & Grözinger, Gerd, 2008. "Arbeitszeitwünsche, Arbeitslosigkeit und Arbeitszeitpolitik," WSI-Mitteilungen, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 61(2), pages 92-99.
    6. Shulamit Kahn & Kevin Lang, 1996. "Hours Constraints and the Wage/Hours Locus," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(s1), pages 71-75, April.
    7. Das, Marcel & van Soest, Arthur, 1999. "A panel data model for subjective information on household income growth," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(4), pages 409-426, December.
    8. Geyer, Johannes & Myck, Michal, 2010. "Poorer Health – Shorter Hours? Health and Flexibility of Hours of Work," IZA Discussion Papers 5169, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Bell, Linda A. & Freeman, Richard B., 2001. "The incentive for working hard: explaining hours worked differences in the US and Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 181-202, May.
    10. Stewart, Mark B & Swaffield, Joanna K, 1997. "Constraints on the Desired Hours of Work of British Men," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(441), pages 520-535, March.
    11. Gary Chamberlain, 1980. "Analysis of Covariance with Qualitative Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 47(1), pages 225-238.
    12. Euwals, Rob & van Soest, Arthur, 1999. "Desired and actual labour supply of unmarried men and women in the Netherlands," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 95-118, March.
    13. Gert G. Wagner & Joachim R. Frick & Jürgen Schupp, 2007. "The German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) – Scope, Evolution and Enhancements," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 127(1), pages 139-169.
    14. Jerry Jacobs & Kathleen Green, 1998. "Who Are the Overworked Americans?," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(4), pages 442-459.
    15. Altonji, Joseph G & Paxson, Christina H, 1988. "Labor Supply Preferences, Hours Constraints, and Hours-Wage Trade-Offs," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(2), pages 254-276, April.
    16. Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Ziegler, Alexandre, 2003. "Asymmetric information about workers' productivity as a cause for inefficient long working hours," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 727-747, December.
    17. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    18. Alfonso Sousa-Poza & Fred Henneberger, 2002. "An Empirical Analysis of Working-Hours Constraints in Twenty-one Countries," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 60(2), pages 209-242.
    19. Clair Vickery, 1977. "The Time-Poor: A New Look at Poverty," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 12(1), pages 27-48.
    20. Charlene Kalenkoski & Karen Hamrick & Margaret Andrews, 2011. "Time Poverty Thresholds and Rates for the US Population," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 104(1), pages 129-155, October.
    21. Ada Ferrer-i-Carbonell & Paul Frijters, 2004. "How Important is Methodology for the estimates of the determinants of Happiness?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(497), pages 641-659, July.
    22. Andrew Harvey & Arun Mukhopadhyay, 2007. "When Twenty-Four Hours is not Enough: Time Poverty of Working Parents," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 82(1), pages 57-77, May.
    23. Gregori Baetschmann & Kevin E. Staub & Rainer Winkelmann, 2011. "Reconsidering the analysis of longitudinal happiness data - with an application to the effect of unemployment," ECON - Working Papers 004, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Jun 2011.
    24. Shulamit Kahn & Kevin Lang, 1987. "Constraints on the Choice of Work Hours: Agency vs. Specific-Capital," NBER Working Papers 2238, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    25. Landers, Renee M & Rebitzer, James B & Taylor, Lowell J, 1996. "Rat Race Redux: Adverse Selection in the Determination of Work Hours in Law Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 329-348, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wunder, Christoph & Heineck, Guido, 2013. "Working time preferences, hours mismatch and well-being of couples: Are there spillovers?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 244-252.
    2. Wunder, Christoph, 2016. "Working hours mismatch and well-being: comparative evidence from Australian and German panel data," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145544, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    3. Michael C. Knaus & Steffen Otterbach, 2019. "Work Hour Mismatch And Job Mobility: Adjustment Channels And Resolution Rates," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(1), pages 227-242, January.
    4. Constant, Amelie F. & Otterbach, Steffen, 2011. "Work Hours Constraints: Impacts and Policy Implications," IZA Policy Papers 35, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Ehing, Daniel, 2013. "Unter- und Überbeschäftigung in Deutschland: Eine Analyse wesentlicher Einflussfaktoren auf die Unterbeschäftigung in Teilzeit," FZG Discussion Papers 53, University of Freiburg, Research Center for Generational Contracts (FZG).
    6. Steffen Otterbach, 2010. "Mismatches Between Actual and Preferred Work Time: Empirical Evidence of Hours Constraints in 21 Countries," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 143-161, June.
    7. Sousa-Poza, Alfonso & Ziegler, Alexandre, 2003. "Asymmetric information about workers' productivity as a cause for inefficient long working hours," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 727-747, December.
    8. Cem Baslevent, 2014. "The Work-Life Conflict and Well-Being of Turkish Employees," Working Papers 827, Economic Research Forum, revised May 2014.
    9. Cem Başlevent & Hasan Kirmanoğlu, 2014. "The Impact of Deviations from Desired Hours of Work on the Life Satisfaction of Employees," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 33-43, August.
    10. Weber, Enzo & Zimmert, Franziska, 2017. "The creation and resolution of working hour discrepancies over the life course," IAB-Discussion Paper 201729, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    11. Nie, Peng & Otterbach, Steffen & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso, 2015. "Long work hours and health in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 212-229.
    12. Kleibrink, Jan, 2014. "Sick of your Job? – Negative Health Effects from Non-Optimal Employment," Ruhr Economic Papers 514, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    13. Alameddine, Mohamad & Otterbach, Steffen & Rafii, Bayan & Sousa-Poza, Alfonso, 2018. "Work hour constraints in the German nursing workforce: A quarter of a century in review," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(10), pages 1101-1108.
    14. Jan Kleibrink, 2014. "Sick of your Job? – Negative Health Effects from Non-Optimal Employment," Ruhr Economic Papers 0514, Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität Dortmund, Universität Duisburg-Essen.
    15. Cem Başlevent & Hasan Kirmanoğlu, 2017. "Gender Inequality in Europe and the Life Satisfaction of Working and Non-working Women," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 107-124, February.
    16. Christian Dudel & Notburga Ott & Martin Werding, 2016. "Maintaining one’s living standard at old age: What does that mean?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 1261-1279, November.
    17. Elke Wolf, 2014. "The German Part-Time Wage Gap: Bad News for Men," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 663, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    18. Cem Başlevent, 2014. "The Work-Life Conflict and Well-Being of Turkish Employees," Ekonomi-tek - International Economics Journal, Turkish Economic Association, vol. 3(1), pages 57-76, January.
    19. repec:zbw:rwirep:0514 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Ricardo Pagan, 2017. "Impact of Working Time Mismatch on Job Satisfaction: Evidence for German Workers with Disabilities," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 125-149, February.
    21. Joachim Merz & Tim Rathjen, 2011. "Intensity of Time and Income Interdependent Multidimensional Poverty: Well-Being and Minimum 2DGAP – German Evidence," FFB-Discussionpaper 92, Research Institute on Professions (Forschungsinstitut Freie Berufe (FFB)), LEUPHANA University Lüneburg.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Work time; hours constraints; health; Germany; United Kingdom;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. SOEP based publications

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp424. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Bibliothek (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sodiwde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.