The Labour Market Returns to Sleep

Arbeitspapier

The proportion of people sleeping less than the daily-recommended hours has increased. Yet, we know little about the labour market returns to sleep. We use longitudinal data from Germany and exploit exogenous variation in sleep duration induced by time and local variations in sunset time. We find that a 1-hour increase in weekly sleep increases employment by 1.6 percentage points and weekly earnings by 3.4%. Most of this earnings effect comes from productivity improvements, while the number of working hours decreases with sleep time. We identify one mechanism driving these effects, namely the better mental health workers experience from sleeping more hours.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: CESifo Working Paper ; No. 10116

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
• Subject: sleep ; employment ; productivity ; mental health ; sunset times

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Costa-Font, Joan ; Fleche, Sarah ; Pagan, Ricardo ; Costa-i-Font, Joan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo)
• (where): Munich
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/271760
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET