TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hamermesh,Daniel S.
AU  - Slemrod,Joel
TI  - The Economics of Workaholism: We Should Not Have Worked on This Paper
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 11566
PY  - 2005
Y2  - August 2005
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11566
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w11566.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Daniel S. Hamermesh
Department of Economics
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712-1173
Tel: 512/475-8526
Fax: 512/471-3510
E-Mail: hamermes@eco.utexas.edu

Joel Slemrod
University of Michigan Business School
701 Tappan Street
Room R5396
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1234
Tel: 734/936-3914
Fax: 734-615-4323
E-Mail: jslemrod@umich.edu
AB  - A large literature examines the addictive properties of such behaviors as smoking, drinking alcohol and eating.  We argue that for some people addictive behavior may apply to a much more central aspect of economic life: working.  Workaholism is subject to the same concerns about the individual as other addictions, is more likely to be a problem of higher-income individuals, and can, under conditions of jointness in the workplace or the household, generate negative spillovers onto individuals around the workaholic. Using the Retirement History Survey and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, we find evidence that is consistent with the idea that high-income, highly educated people suffer from workaholism with regard to retiring, in that they are more likely to postpone earlier plans for retirement. The evidence and theory suggest that the negative effects of workaholism can be addressed with a more progressive income tax system than would be appropriate in the absence of this behavior.
ER  -