TY  - JOUR
AU  - Bell,Linda
AU  - Freeman,Richard
TI  - Why Do Americans and Germans Work Different Hours?
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 4808
PY  - 1994
Y2  - July 1994
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4808
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w4808.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Linda Bell
E-Mail: lbell@haverford.edu

Richard B. Freeman
NBER
1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/868-3900
Fax: 617/868-2742
E-Mail: freeman@nber.org
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 1994-10-01
AB  - This paper documents the difference between the annual hours worked by employed Americans and Germans, decomposes the difference into differences due to vacation and holiday time and to hours worked while on the job, and examines alternative explanations for the difference.  Employed Americans work roughly 10-15% more hours than Germans.  Since American employment-population rates exceed those of Germans, adult Americans average some 20% more work time than adult Germans.  At the same time, Americans show greater preference for additional hours worked than do Germans.  Both of these differences developed in the past 20 years.  Two decades ago, Americans worked less than Germans, and it was the Germans who wanted to work more hours.  Standard labor supply analyses do not appear able to explain this difference.  We show that differences in hours worked are related to differences in earnings inequality across countries, and hypothesize that the high rewards to success in the U.S., lack of job security, and low social safety net compared to Germany or other European countries may explain the cross-country differences in an extended supply model.
ER  -