| Autor institucional : | University of California - World Bank |
| Autor/Autores: | Amory Gethin - Emmanuel Saez |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025-11-10 |
| Alcance geográfico: | Mundial |
| Publicado en: | Estados Unidos |
| Descargar: | Descargar PDF |
| Resumen: | This paper uses labor force surveys from 160 countries to build a new microdatabase on hours worked covering 97% of the world population in cross section. We also construct time series spanning over 20 years in 87 countries. Hours worked per adult are slightly bell-shaped with GDP per capita but weakly correlated with development overall. Hours worked by the young (aged 15-19) and elderly (aged 60+) decline with development, driven by growing school attendance and public pension coverage. Hours worked among primeage adults (aged 20-59) are mildly bell-shaped with development for men while they are increasing for women. The fall in male hours in middle-to-higher income countries is driven by reduced hours per worker and is o set by increases in female labor force participation. These two forces have exactly compensated each other in many countries, leading to a remarkable long-run stability of prime-age hours worked. Labor taxes are strongly negatively correlated with prime-age hours worked both in international comparisons and overtime within countries. Controlling for government transfers only partly reduces the link between labor taxes and prime-age hours, ruling out substitution and income e ects on labor supply as the only driver. Controlling for working hours regulations and the size of the formal sector eliminates this link, suggesting that regulations also play a large role in reducing intensive hours in higher-income countries. |
