The labour market returns to sleep

Joan Costa-Font, Sarah Flèche and Ricardo Pagan Rodriguez

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Despite the growing prevalence of insufficient sleep among individuals, we still know little about the labour market return to sleep. To address this gap, we use longitudinal data from Germany and leverage exogenous fluctuations in sleep duration caused by variations in time and local sunset times. Our findings reveal that a one-hour increase in weekly sleep is associated with a 1.6 percentage point rise in employment and a 3.4% increase in weekly earnings. Such effect on earnings stems from productivity improvements given that the number of working hours decreases with longer sleep duration. We also identify a key mechanism driving these effects, namely the enhanced mental well-being experienced by individuals who sleep longer hours.

Keywords: sleep; employment; productivity; mental health; sunset times (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I18 J12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16 pages
Date: 2024-01-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Published in Journal of Health Economics, 1, January, 2024, 93. ISSN: 0167-6296

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/120758/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The labour market returns to sleep (2024)
Working Paper: The labour market returns to sleep (2024)
Working Paper: The labour market returns to sleep (2024)
Working Paper: The Labour Market Returns to Sleep (2022)
Working Paper: The Labour Market Returns to Sleep (2022)
Working Paper: The Labour Market Returns to Sleep (2022)
Working Paper: The Labour Market Returns to Sleep (2022)
Working Paper: The Labour Market Returns to Sleep (2022)
Working Paper: The Labour Market Returns to Sleep (2022)
Working Paper: The labour Market Returns to Sleep (2022)
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