Worktime Regulations and Spousal Labour Supply

Dominique Goux, Eric Maurin and Barbara Petrongolo

No 5639, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate spillovers in spousal labour supply exploiting independent variation in hours worked generated by the introduction of the shorter workweek in France in the late 1990s. We find that female and male employees treated by the shorter legal workweek reduce their weekly labour supply by about 2 hours, and do not experience any reduction in their monthly earnings. While wives of treated men do not seem to adjust their working time at either the intensive or extensive margins, husbands of treated wives respond by cutting their workweek by about half an hour to one hour, according to specifications and samples. In particular, managers and professionals respond much more strongly to the shorter legal workweek in their wives’ firms than men in lower occupations. These effects are consistent with the presence of significant cross-hour effects on labour supply for husbands, though not for wives.

Keywords: workweek reduction; labour supply; spill-over effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2011-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-lab and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Published - published in American Economic Review, 2014,104, 252-276.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Worktime Regulations and Spousal Labor Supply (2014)
Working Paper: Worktime regulations and spousal labor supply (2014)
Working Paper: Worktime Regulations and Spousal Labor Supply (2014)
Working Paper: Worktime Regulations and Spousal Labor Supply (2014)
Working Paper: Worktime Regulations and Spousal Labor Supply (2013)
Working Paper: Worktime Regulations and Spousal Labor Supply (2011)
Working Paper: Worktime regulations and spousal labor supply (2011)
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