Welfare Policy and the Distribution of Hours of Work

L. Rachel Ngai and Christopher Pissarides

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: We examine the distribution of hours of work across industrial sectors in OECD countries. We find large disparities when sectors are divided into three groups: one that produces goods without home substitutes and two others that have home substitutes — health and social work, and all others. We attribute the disparities to the countries' tax and subsidy policies. High taxation substantially reduces hours in sectors that have close home substitutes but less so in other sectors. Health and social care subsidies increase hours in that sector. We compute these effects for nineteen OECD countries.

Keywords: hours of work; employment shares; home production; childcare; tax wedge; welfare state; social subsidies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E02 H53 I18 I38 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ltv
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Working Paper: Welfare policy and the distribution of hours of work (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp0962

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