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How happy are French workers?
On the new (and anonymous) Economist blog, Maybe Megan McArdle writes:
A new working paper from the IMF looks at the impact of the 35-hour working week in France, where it has been imposed by law on large firms since 2000. The authors, Marcello Estevao and Filipa Sa, find that the 35-hour week has:
(i) encouraged workers in large firms to take second jobs, or to move to small firms where the 35-hour week is not obligatory;
(ii) driven up hourly wage costs for large firms;
(iii) probably had "no significant impact" on aggregate employment;
and
(iv) brought no significant increase in worker satisfaction, as measured by the Eurobarometer opinion survey series.
I usually doubt the kind of questionnaire evidence that would go into the kind of judgment represented by iv), but nonetheless this is worth reporting.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on November 9, 2006 at 05:26 PM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
But would the French be truly happy if they were happy?
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Nov 9, 2006 8:58:35 PM
Being French, they'd be unhappy if they knew they were enjoying their unhappiness.
Posted by: John Salmon at Nov 9, 2006 9:50:53 PM
How can I get a 35 hour work week in the USA?
The libertarian theory says I "negotiate" with firm owners for my wages.
Everywhere I've ever been they look at me like I have 3 eyes when I try to "negotiate" my number of hours.
Posted by: Delirious at Nov 9, 2006 10:51:51 PM
I have coworkers who work 30 hour work weeks. It's called part time. Some of those coworkers were hired on during the boom but wanted to continue to meet some family obligations. Some are sufficiently good that it was worth getting 30 hours of their time rather than zero. It's a hard sell at hire, but I've seen it renegotiated once the firm has experience with you.
Posted by: quadrupole at Nov 10, 2006 2:10:47 AM
Now perhaps people do not need to "extend" the working hours to compete for their working diligence .
Posted by: blindbabe at Nov 10, 2006 3:59:28 AM
The bias may be from the categorization of the small firm and the large firm, which is measured by the number of employees, which otherwise could be interpreted as the group coordination intensity.
Posted by: sally at Nov 10, 2006 4:25:00 AM
delirious: 'Everywhere I've ever been they look at me like I have 3 eyes when I try to "negotiate" my number of hours.'
Quadropole is correct. A worker - a non-union worker, that is - has much more leverage after he has proven his value to the employer. I've seen both half-time and full-time workers sucessfully negotiate 30 hours weeks. But all had at least a year with their employers.
Posted by: JohnDewey at Nov 10, 2006 5:45:21 AM
A. Full time workers in the larger may be happier, because the low-wage part time workers take over the boring work.
In the paper,1. only the full time workers data is analysed;2. the wage rigidness is argued as the support for non-improvement of happiness.(if the part time workers data can be taken into account,their part would further imflate the wage rise per hour in the large firm.
B.The increase of the double job holding may not be caused by the law limit
1.Booming effects from 2000 still has not been filtered away, the dependent variable itself is job holding tendency, and as the 2000 is the year around which the new law and the booming are both happening, the mixed effects has not been differentiated.2. the portion of the employment is said to be stable.
C. Transition from Large to Small ( over 35 hours) may not necessarily be caused by the preference of working overtime
The second regression could be integrated into the first one, but not separated, which confuses the result;
D. Employment may be boosted by small firm.
The dependable is categorized into 1, 2,3 makes no sense,which come to the stability of unemployment at t;2.the small firm is 3, the large firm number is larger than the small number, so the change of the difference would be smaller in small firm.( Reversely, the difference is more evident by the large frim).
As to the impact of law on labor composition, the simliar problem exists as above. The big change only means the larger portion of the dependable variable 3 ( the largest number)
Posted by: Tracy at Nov 10, 2006 6:06:41 AM
"utility is separable as consumption and leisure"
In the model, the happiness is measure by the wages. and the survey data analysis and almost all part of the data analysis is for the happiness when working, esp. for the survey data which only focuses on working hour ( not wages, so not about the consumption).
1. The French is happy within their working hour does not mean that they can enjoy their personal life outside of working hour
2. When working, it may not necessarily be sue to very happy.
3. People with less working hour is not happy, maybe because of people with less working hour tend to be people with more labor intensive and boring work.
Posted by: penny at Nov 10, 2006 6:24:27 AM
For gruop effects, the other workers working hour should also be considered and included into modeling on the utility of comsumption.
In data analysis, the percentage of working 35 hrs and working over 35 hrs could be controled.
Posted by: bonnie at Nov 10, 2006 6:35:08 AM
for production
1.it may only contribute to the full time worker
2.wage may not necessarily be paid by hour,but directly linked to the percentage of the production profitability
3.even the large scale of the workers could lower the turnover rate in case of the loss of employment by enhancing internal coordination.
Posted by: lilly at Nov 10, 2006 7:40:31 AM
Ceteris paribus, (and of course they never are) a worker should feel greater job security with two part-time jobs than with one full-time job. Diversification of unemployment risk and all. Of course, when firms face per-workers costs, negotiating such an arrangement is difficult for all but low-wage work.
Posted by: Cyrus at Nov 10, 2006 7:53:46 AM
The hourly wage cost may not be caused by the competition between the small and big firms, but be boomed by the increase of the human capital return,which is helped by the new law to reduce the internal conflicts.
Everyone get what they want and deserves to earn and then to consume and have fun, so they feel happier.
Posted by: teddy at Nov 10, 2006 7:56:30 AM
low wage labor facing the life stress would more easily be "mugged".
Posted by: debbie at Nov 10, 2006 8:01:13 AM
Don't tell my boss, but I already work a 35 hour week.
Of course, he works a 34-hour week. So maybe it's ok.
Posted by: mk at Nov 10, 2006 3:53:47 PM
It may not be more efficient, but I'll take a 35 hour work week every time.
Posted by: PoliticalCritic at Nov 10, 2006 4:37:57 PM
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