Hours worked in selected OECD countries: an empirical assessment

Lorenzo Carbonari, Vincenzo Atella and Paola Samà

International Review of Applied Economics, 2018, vol. 32, issue 4, 525-545

Abstract: In this paper, we empirically assess the evolution of the aggregate hours worked, with a particular emphasis on their age structure, in a sample of OECD countries, along the period 1970–2007. We show that the age composition of the workforce has a large and statistically significant effect on hours worked volatility. To exploit the multilevel structure of our data, we use a Mixed Linear Model to investigate the consequences of (i) demographic change, (ii) sector-specific, and (iii) country-specific factors on hours worked by ‘young’ (aged 15–29) and ‘prime-aged’ (29+) individuals. We show that changes in workforce demographics, captured by the ratio between population older than 29 and population younger than 29, are strongly and significantly correlated with the amount of hours worked by ‘young’ individuals. We also document the impact of sectoral capital intensity and profitability on the dynamics of (aggregate) hours worked. Finally, we show that productive public expenditure, here proxied by the public investment in ICT, is beneficial for the hours worked both by young and prime-aged individuals.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02692171.2017.1353593 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Hours Worked in Selected OECD Countries: an Empirical Assessment (2017)
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:taf:irapec:v:32:y:2018:i:4:p:525-545

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CIRA20

DOI: 10.1080/02692171.2017.1353593

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Applied Economics is currently edited by Professor Malcolm Sawyer

More articles in International Review of Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().