Understanding Growth and Inequality Trends: The Role of Labour Supply in the US and Germany

Lars Osberg

Canadian Public Policy, 2003, vol. 29, issue s1, 163-184

Abstract: Between 1980 and 2000, average actual working hours per adult rose by 234 in the United States while falling by 170 in Germany. These trends imply that growth in per capita GDP may be a poor indicator of trends in average economic well-being and that trends in money income inequality may misrepresent trends in the inequality of economic well-being. Is greater inequality in the US the incentive that motivates greater work effort by Americans? Differentials in average usual working hours largely arise from differences in workforce participation -- particularly among women and older men. Except for the extreme lower tail, the distribution of usual working hours of prime age males is essentially identical and constant in Germany and the US -- which implies that the grea ter inequality of earnings in the US has no noticeable incentive effect on the labour supply of workers.

Date: 2003
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Downloads: (external link)
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0317-0861%2820030 ... GAITT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L (text/html)
only available to JSTOR subscribers

Related works:
Working Paper: Understanding Growth and Inequality Trends: The Role of Labor Supply in the USA and Germany (2002)
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:cpp:issued:v:29:y:2003:i:s1:p:163-184

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.utpjournals.com/loi/cpp/

Access Statistics for this article

Canadian Public Policy is currently edited by Prof. Mike Veall

More articles in Canadian Public Policy from University of Toronto Press University of Toronto Press Journals Division 5201 Dufferin Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3H 5T8.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Iver Chong ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).