Arbeitspapier

Why Are Average Hours Worked Lower in Richer Countries?

Why are average hours worked per adult lower in rich countries than in poor countries? We consider two natural explanations: income effects in preferences, in which leisure becomes more valuable when income rises, and distortionary tax systems, which are more prevalent in richer countries. To assess the importance of these two forces, we build a simple model of labor supply by heterogeneous individuals and calibrate it to match international data on labor income taxation, government transfers relative to GDP, and hours worked per adult. The model predicts that income effects are the main driving force behind the decline of average hours worked with GDP per capita. We reach a similar conclusion in an extended model that matches cross-country patterns of labor supply along the extensive and intensive margins and of the prevalence of subsistence self-employment.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 13156

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
Thema
income effects
hours worked
taxation

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Bick, Alexander
Fuchs-Schündeln, Nicola
Lagakos, David
Tsujiyama, Hitoshi
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
(wo)
Bonn
(wann)
2020

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Bick, Alexander
  • Fuchs-Schündeln, Nicola
  • Lagakos, David
  • Tsujiyama, Hitoshi
  • Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Entstanden

  • 2020

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