What Hampers Part-Time Work?: An Empirical Analysis of Wages, Hours Restrictions and Employment from a Dutch-German Perspective

ISBN-13: 9783790800067 / Angielski / Miękka / 2002 / 174 str.

E. Wolf; Elke Wolf; Herbert Hax

Opis

The more I live the more I learn. The more I learn the more I realize the less I know (Alan and Manly Bergman) This book is a slightly revised version of my dissertation thesis "Wages, hours restrictions and employment" accepted in July 2001 by the Department of Economics at Mannheim University. Most of the studies are part of the re search project "Working hours flexibility and employment" (Arbeitszeitjlexi bilisierung und Beschiijtigung) which was conducted at the Centre for Euro pean Economic Research (ZEW) with financial support by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung. Now that all the work is complete, nothing remains but to thank all the people who supported the writing of my thesis. Firstly, I am indebted to my advisor Prof. Wolfgang Franz, who always furthered my academic work and encouraged me to take opportunities beyond the standard path. His guiding questions and comments were very valuable in gaining an overview of the whole issue. Furthermore, I am especially grateful to Prof. Daniel Hamermesh, my second advisor. I gained tremendously from the fruitful discussions during my stay at the University of Texas in Austin. His encouragement and verve were essential support factors in the completion of my work. Prof. Arthur van Soest and Prof. Franc;ois Laisney both contributed to the technical and methodological standard of my analysis by patiently discussing various model specifications and nerve-racking convergence problems."

Spis treści

1 Introduction.- 1.1 Motivation of the research questions.- 1.2 What we know about work-sharing.- 1.3 Description of the data used in this book.- 1.4 Structure of the book.- 2 The part-time wage gap in Germany and the Netherlands.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Why should wages depend upon hours worked?.- 2.2.1 Brief discussion of some theoretical approaches.- 2.2.2 Institutional framework and part-time wage gap.- 2.3 Empirical methodology.- 2.4 The specification of the econometric model.- 2.5 Data sets, sample selection and definition of the variables.- 2.6 Descriptive figures on working hours and wages.- 2.7 Estimation results of the simultaneous model.- 2.7.1 Models imposing a uniform wage-hours profile.- 2.7.2 Models allowing for group-specific wage-hours profiles.- 2.8 Summary and conclusions.- 3 Does the part-time wage gap matter?.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Data and some descriptive analyses.- 3.3 The econometric model.- 3.3.1 The discrete choice model of labor supply.- 3.3.2 Calculating household net income.- 3.3.3 Hours restrictions.- 3.4 Estimation results.- 3.4.1 Wage equations.- 3.4.2 Labor supply models.- 3.4.3 Elasticities.- 3.5 Equalizing part-time and full-time wage rates.- 3.6 Summary and conclusion.- 4 Loosening hours restrictions.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 German and Dutch employment systems and economic structures.- 4.2.1 Unions and wages.- 4.2.2 Recent trends in working-time policy.- 4.2.3 Social security systems.- 4.2.4 Active labor market policy.- 4.2.5 Temporary workers.- 4.2.6 Sectoral structure.- 4.3 Descriptions of the data sets.- 4.4 Comparing the match of desired and actual hours across countries.- 4.5 A model of actual working hours.- 4.5.1 Specification of the empirical model.- 4.5.2 Some remarks about the endogeneity of desired hours.- 4.5.3 A brief discussion of the estimation results.- 4.6 Inference from the estimation results.- 4.6.1 Changing distribution of working hours.- 4.6.2 Effects on the match between desire and reality.- 4.6.3 How about employment effects?.- 4.7 Summary and conclusions.- 5 Final conclusions and policy implications.- A Appendix to Chapter 2.- A.1 Evaluation of the Likelihood Function.- A.2 Expected values of hourly wage rates in the simultaneous model.- A.3 Further empirical results.- B Appendix to Chapter 3.- B.1 The bootstrap method.- B.2 Orthogonalizing group-specific dummy variables.- B.3 Remarks on the German tax and benefit system.- B.4 Further empirical results.- C Appendix to Chapter 4.- List of Figures.- List of Tables.- References.

Blurb

 

This book contributes to clarify the conditions of jobs with shorter working hours and reckons the potential for increasing part-time employment in Germany. Two crucial obstacles of part-time employment are addressed: Firstly, the wage structure and its implications for labor supply, and secondly, the lack of job offers for part-time employees. The Netherlands - known as the first part-time economy in the world - is used as a benchmark for the German case. The empirical analyses in this book are based on representative household data for Gemany and the Netherlands.