Recovery from Work and the Productivity of Working Hours

44 Pages Posted: 8 Aug 2016

See all articles by John H. Pencavel

John H. Pencavel

Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR); IZA Institute of Labor Economics

Abstract

Observations on munition workers are organized to examine the relationship between their output each week, their working hours and days each week, and their working hours and days in adjacent weeks. The hypothesis is that workers need to recover from work and a long working week results in greater fatigue and stress and yet provides insufficient time for recuperation before the next week's work opens. Workers require time off the job to restore their physical, mental, and emotional capacities and, if a long working week provides inadequate time to repair, their subsequent work performance suffers.

Keywords: productivity, output, working hours, recovery

JEL Classification: J24, J22, N34

Suggested Citation

Pencavel, John H., Recovery from Work and the Productivity of Working Hours. IZA Discussion Paper No. 10103, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2819385 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2819385

John H. Pencavel (Contact Author)

Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) ( email )

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Stanford, CA 94305-6015
United States
650-723-3712 (Phone)
650-725-0293 (Fax)

IZA Institute of Labor Economics

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

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