Working hours and job sharing in the EU and USA
Subtitle: are Europeans lazy? or Americans crazy?
By: edited by Tito Boeri, Michael C. Burda, and Francis Kramarz ; with Pierre Cahuc ... [et al.].
Contributors: Boeri, Tito.; Burda, Michael C.; Kramarz, Francis.; Cahuc, Pierre.; Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti.
Series: Reports for the Fondazione Rodolfo DeBenedetti
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 269
ISBN-13: 9780199231027
Subjects: Hours of labor -- European Union countries; Hours of labor -- United States; Labor productivity -- European Union countries; Labor productivity -- United States; Job sharing -- European Union countries; Job sharing -- United States
Description: "In the last 50 years the gap in labor productivity between Europe and the US has narrowed considerably with estimates in 2005 suggesting a EU-US labor productivity gap of about 5 per cent. Yet, average per capita income in the EU is still about 30% lower than in the US. This persistent gap in income per capita can be almost entirely explained by Europeans working less than Americans." "Why do Europeans work so little compared to Americans? What do they do with their spare time outside work? Can they be induced to work more without reducing labor productivity? If so, how? And what is the effect on well-being if policies are created to reward paid work as opposed to other potentially socially valuable activities, like child-bearing? More broadly, should the state interfere at all when it comes to bargaining over working hours? This volume explores these questions and many more in an attempt to understand the changing nature of the hours worked in the USA and EU, as well as the effects of policies that impose working hour reductions."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: "The two studies that make up this volume were originally prepared for the fifth European conference of the Fondazione Rodolfo DeBenedetti, which was held in Portovenere in May 2006"--Acknowledgements.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The distribution of total work in the EU and USA / Michael C. Burda, Daniel S. Hamermesh, and Philippe Weil; title: Comments / Alberto Alesina, Christopher Pissarides; title: Labor market effects of work-sharing arrangements in Europe / Francis Kramarz, Pierre Cahuc, Bruno Crépon, Oskar Nordström Skans, Thorsten Schank, Gijsbert van Lomwel, and André Zylberberg; title: Comments / Giuseppe Nicoletti, Jan van Ours; title: Final remarks / Olivier Blanchard, Stephen Nickell, Guido Tabellini.