Does the Global Economy Mean More Sweat?: Trade, Investment, Migration and Working Hours in Europe
33 Pages Posted: 19 Jul 2010 Last revised: 17 Aug 2010
Date Written: 2010
Abstract
This paper investigates how international trade, investment, and migration affect establishment-level standard weekly hours in Europe. These aspects of globalization have offsetting implications that make it unclear whether it spurs, reduces, or has little net effect on standard hours. To explore these possibilities, the paper analyzes a survey of a large sample of establishments in eighteen European countries. The analysis reveals and explains significant diversity in how different “faces” of globalization affect weekly hours. Establishments in sectors facing more trade and investment tend to have neither shorter nor longer work weeks. But those in net import-competing sectors and having more foreign-born employees tend to have higher standard hours than other enterprises. Finally, collective bargaining over working hours may mediate the effects of globalization, particularly trade: establishments without collective-bargaining agreements increase their standard hours in response to trade, while those establishments with such agreements are less likely to so respond.
Keywords: globalization, time, labor markets, migration, trade, collective bargaining
JEL Classification: F59, F15, J22
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Work and Leisure in the U.S. And Europe: Why so Different?
By Alberto F. Alesina, Edward L. Glaeser, ...
-
Work and Leisure in the U.S. And Europe: Why so Different?
By Alberto F. Alesina, Edward L. Glaeser, ...
-
Work and Leisure in the U.S. And Europe: Why so Different?
By Alberto F. Alesina, Edward L. Glaeser, ...
-
By Steven J. Davis and Magnus Henrekson
-
By Steven J. Davis and Magnus Henrekson
-
Structural Transformation and the Deterioration of European Labor Market Outcomes