Working Time Mismatch and Employee Subjective Well-being across Institutional Contexts: A Job Quality Perspective

Wanying Ling, Senhu Wang and Zhuofei Lu
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Wanying Ling: The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, PR China
Senhu Wang: National University of Singapore, Singapore
Zhuofei Lu: University of Oxford, UK

Work, Employment & Society, 2025, vol. 39, issue 2, 470-495

Abstract: Despite the well-documented negative impact of working time mismatch on employee subjective well-being, little is known about the extent to which this association can be explained by job quality and how these patterns may differ across institutional contexts. Utilizing panel data from the UK and cross-country data from Europe, the decomposition analyses show that for underemployment, more than half of the negative effects are explained by low job quality, especially poor career prospects. For overemployment, more than a third of its negative effect is explained by low job quality, with poor prospects, social environment and work–life balance being significant contributing factors. This interplay between job quality and working time mismatch on subjective well-being varies notably across different welfare and employment regimes. These findings reveal how job quality dimensions differentially contribute to the well-being of overemployed and underemployed individuals, highlighting the distinctive role of institutional context.

Keywords: institutional context; job quality; overemployment; subjective well-being; underemployment; working time mismatch (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:39:y:2025:i:2:p:470-495

DOI: 10.1177/09500170241259330

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