Work Hours in Chinese Enterprises: Evidence From Matched Employer-Employee Data

Vinod Mishra and Russell Smyth

No 10-12, Monash Economics Working Papers from Monash University, Department of Economics

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that are correlated with hours worked in China. A distinguishing feature of the study is that we use representative matched employer and employee data. Hence, in addition to the usual worker characteristics examined in conventional economic models of labour supply, we also take account of the influence of firm characteristics and policies in influencing the number of hours worked. The results suggest that in addition to the hourly wage rate, labour supply characteristics and human capital characteristics of the individual, firm-level differences are important in explaining variation in weekly hours worked in Chinese firms. In particular, our results suggest that there is a norm of longer working hours in firms which employ a high proportion of female workers, that hours worked are less in firms which pay overtime and that hours worked are less in firms in which labour disputes have disrupted production. The implications of the results for Chinese firms wishing to improve labour management practices are discussed.

Keywords: China; hours worked; wages; firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 J30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 37 pages
Date: 2012-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-hrm, nep-lab, nep-lma and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/eco/research/paper ... inesemishrasmyth.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mos:moswps:2012-10

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://www.monash.e ... esearch/publications

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Monash Economics Working Papers from Monash University, Department of Economics Department of Economics, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Simon Angus ().