Do Peers Affect Determination of Work Hours? Evidence Based on Unique Employee Data from Global Japanese Firms in Europe.

By using a unique dataset on managerial-level employees who were transferred from Japan to European branches of the same global firms, we examine what would happen to work hours when a worker moves from a long-hour-working country to relatively shorter-hour countries. Even after controlling for busi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Labor Research Vol. 34; no. 3; pp. 359 - 389
Autores principales: Kuroda, Sachiko, Yamamoto, Isamu
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Sep2013
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:By using a unique dataset on managerial-level employees who were transferred from Japan to European branches of the same global firms, we examine what would happen to work hours when a worker moves from a long-hour-working country to relatively shorter-hour countries. Even after controlling for business cycles, unobserved individual heterogeneity, job characteristics, and work hour regulations, we find a significant decline in Japanese work hours after their transfer to Europe, resulting from working-behavior influences of locally hired staff. We also find that the reduction in hours worked highly depends on the extent of the workers' interactions with local peers.