Do Working Hours Affect Health? Evidence from Statutory Workweek Regulations in Germany

Kamila Cygam-Rehm and Christoph Wunder

No 967, SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research from DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP)

Abstract: This study estimates the causal effect of working hours on health. We deal with the endogeneity of working hours through instrumental variables techniques. In particular, we exploit exogenous variation in working hours from statutory workweek regulations in the German public sector as an instrumental variable. Using panel data, we run two-stage least squares regressions controlling for individual-specific unobserved heterogeneity. We find adverse consequences of increasing working hours on subjective and several objective health measures. The effects are mainly driven by women and parents of minor children who generally face heavier constraints in organizing their workweek.

Keywords: Working time; health; standard workweek; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J22 J81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 p.
Date: 2018
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hea and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:diw:diwsop:diw_sp967

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