European vs. American Hours Worked: Assessing the Role of the Extensive and Intensive Margins

Francois Langot and Coralia Azucena Quintero Rojas

No 3846, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Europeans have worked less than Americans since the 1970s. In this paper, we quantify the relative importance of the extensive and intensive margins of aggregate hours of market work on the observed differences. Our counterfactual exercises show that the two dimensions of the extensive margin, the employment rate and the participation rate, explain the most of the total-hours-gap between regions. Moreover, both ratios have similar weight. Conversely, the intensive margin, measured by the number of hours worked per employee, has the smallest role.

Keywords: employment; participation; hours of market work; intensive and extensive margins (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E2 J2 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2008-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-eec and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Published - published in: Economic Bulletin, 2009, 29, 530-542

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Journal Article: European vs American Hours Worked: assessing the role of the extensive and intensive margins (2009)
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