The Effect of a Reduction in Working Hours on Employment: Empirical Evidence for West-Germany

Christian Dreger, Olaf Fuchs and Jurgen Kolb
Additional contact information
Olaf Fuchs: Institute for Economic Research Halle
Jurgen Kolb: Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Germany

Journal of Economic Insight, 2001, vol. 27, issue 2, 69-81

Abstract: This paper deals with the effect of a reduction of weekly working time on employment. Often working time reduction is proposed to stimulate employment. We investigate this hypothesis for West German industrial branches using annual data from 1960 to 1995. The analysis is carried out by the means of panel econometric methods. The results suggest that a reduction of a weekly working time has no impact on the level of employment. Moreover, we identify a rise in the firm's demand for overtime hours as one reason for this outcome.

JEL-codes: C23 J23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2001
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:mve:journl:v:27:y:2001:i:2:p:69-81

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Insight is currently edited by Christopher Douglas and Joshua Lewer

More articles in Journal of Economic Insight from Missouri Valley Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Cullen Goenner ().