How Does Working-Time Flexibility Affect Workers’ Productivity in a Routine Job? Evidence from a Field Experiment

Marie Boltz, Bart Cockx, Ana Diaz Escobar and Luz Magdalena Salas

Working Papers of BETA from Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg

Abstract: We conducted an experiment in which we hired workers under different types of contracts to evaluate how flexible working time affects on-the-job productivity in a routine job. Our approach breaks down the global impact on productivity into sorting and behavioral effects. We find that all forms of working-time flexibility reduce the length of workers’ breaks. For part-time work, these positive effects are globally counterbalanced. Yet arrangements that allow workers to decide when to start and stop working increase global productivity by as much as 50 percent, 40 percent of which is induced by sorting.

Keywords: Flexible work arrangements; part-time work; productivity; labor market flexibility; work–life balance. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J21 J22 J23 J24 J33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-ltv
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http://beta.u-strasbg.fr/WP/2020/2020-45.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: How does working‐time flexibility affect workers' productivity in a routine job? Evidence from a field experiment (2023)
Working Paper: How Does Working-Time Flexibility Affect Workers' Productivity in a Routine Job? Evidence from a Field Experiment (2020)
Working Paper: How Does Working-Time Flexibility Affect Workers’ Productivity in a Routine Job? Evidence from a Field Experiment (2020)
Working Paper: How Does Working-Time Flexibility Affect Workers' Productivity in a Routine Job ? Evidence from a Field Experiment (2020)
Working Paper: How Does Working-Time Flexibility Affect Workers' Productivity in a Routine Job ? Evidence from a Field Experiment (2020)
Working Paper: How Does Working-Time Flexibility Affect Workers' Productivity in a Routine Job? Evidence from a Field Experiment (2020)
Working Paper: How Does Working-Time Flexibility Affect Worker's Productivity in a Routine Job? Evidence from a Field Experiment (2020)
Working Paper: How Does Working-Time Flexibility Affect Workers’ Productivity in a Routine Job? Evidence from a Field Experiment (2020)
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