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THE INFLUENCE OF CHANGING HOURS OF WORK ON WOMEN'S LIFE SATISFACTION *
Author(s) -
GASH VANESSA,
MERTENS ANTJE,
GORDO LAURA ROMEU
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the manchester school
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.361
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1467-9957
pISSN - 1463-6786
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9957.2011.02255.x
Subject(s) - german , preference , working time , wage , work (physics) , working hours , labour supply , hourly wage , economics , british household panel survey , life satisfaction , panel survey , labour economics , working life , panel data , demographic economics , duration (music) , job satisfaction , psychology , econometrics , microeconomics , social psychology , engineering , management , geography , quality (philosophy) , literature , archaeology , art , philosophy , epistemology , mechanical engineering
This paper asks whether moving to part‐time work makes women happy. Previous research on labour supply has assumed that as workers freely choose their optimal working hours on the basis of their innate preferences and the hourly wage rate, outcome reflects preference. This paper tests this assumption by measuring the impact of changes in working hours on life satisfaction in two countries (the UK and Germany using the German Socio‐Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Survey). We find decreases in working hours bring about positive and significant improvement on well‐being for women.