Arbeitspapier

"How Many Hours Would you Want to Work a Week?": Job Quality and the Omitted Variables Bias in Labour Supply Models

This paper sets out to provide an understanding of how individuals form their preferences over the extent of their paid work involvement - their working time preferences - in different work environments and societal contexts. The main objective of the empirical analysis is to investigate how preferences of this kind are constructed at the individual level and adapted over time following changes in work- and familyrelated circumstances. The consideration of the Old and New Länder of Germany as cases for comparative analysis allows for a test of common factors in different contexts of economic conditions and gender relations. The empirical findings from a longitudinal analysis of the German Socio-Economic Panel (1993-2003) run counter to the predictions of neoclassical labour supply theory. This owes to a fundamental difference in terms of theoretical approach. While (most) economists tend to view paid work in instrumental terms - as something that people perform only for its monetary rewards, this study takes account of intrinsic work rewards as central determinants of work motivation. We find the qualitative experience of work to exert an independent influence on individuals' preferences over work hours, and therefore argue for the inclusion of work quality as a central factor in labour supply decisions.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research ; No. 121

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Value of Life; Forgone Income
Single Equation Models; Single Variables: Panel Data Models; Spatio-temporal Models
Thema
Labour
labour supply
working hours
preferences
panel data analysis

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Steiber, Nadia
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
(wo)
Berlin
(wann)
2008

Handle
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:43 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

  • Steiber, Nadia
  • Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)

Entstanden

  • 2008

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