The 15-Hour Week: Keynes’s Prediction Revisited

Nicholas Crafts

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: In 1930 Keynes opined that by 2030 people would work only 15 hours per week. As such, this prediction will not be realised. However, expected lifetime hours of leisure and home production in the UK rose by 58 per cent between 1931 and 2011, rather more than Keynes would have expected. This reflects increases in life expectancy at older ages and much longer expected periods of retirement. Leisure in retirement contributes to high life satisfaction for the elderly but building up savings to pay for it is a barrier to working only 15 hours per week.

Keywords: Home Production; Leisure; Life Expectancy; Retirement; Work JEL Classification: J22; J26; N34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-cwa, nep-his and nep-pke
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https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w ... rp_1360_-_crafts.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: The 15‐Hour Week: Keynes's Prediction Revisited (2022)
Working Paper: The 15-Hour Week: Keynes's Prediction Revisited (2021)
Working Paper: The 15-Hour Week: Keynes's Prediction Revisited (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wrk:warwec:1360

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