The effect of hours of work on social interaction
By: Henry Saffer, Karine Lamiraud.
Contributors: Lamiraud, Karine.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 13743; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 13743.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "Over time, increases in hours of work per capita have created the intuitively plausible notion that there is less time available to pursue social interactions.  The specific question addressed in this paper is the effect of hours of work on social interaction.  This is a difficult empirical question since omitted factors could increase both hours of work and social interaction.  The approach taken in this paper utilizes an exogenous decline in hours of work in France due to a new employment law.  The results clearly show that the employment law reduced hours of work but there is no evidence that the extra hours went to increased social interactions.  Although hours of work are not an important determinant of social interaction, human capital is found to be important.  The effect of human capital, as measured by education and age, is positive for membership groups but negative for visiting relatives and friends.  Also, contrary to expectations, there are no important differences in the determinants of social interaction by gender, marital status or parent status.  Finally, a comparison between France and the US show that the response to human capital and other variables are much the same in both nations"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 6/11/2008.

Includes bibliographical references.

Also available in print.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.