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Employment and Length of the Working Week in a Unionized Economy in which Hours of Work Influence Productivity *
Author(s) -
BOOTH ALISON,
RAVALLION MARTIN
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
economic record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.365
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1475-4932
pISSN - 0013-0249
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4932.1993.tb02124.x
Subject(s) - productivity , economics , labour economics , monopoly , working hours , work (physics) , work hours , demographic economics , market economy , macroeconomics , mechanical engineering , engineering
Conditions are derived for signing the employment effects in a unionized economy of a legislated cut in hours when productivity depends on the number of hours worked each week. Aggregate data suggest that employment will generally increase after a small cut in hours for the UK but the employment effect is ambiguous for Australia. Disaggregated data for Australia suggest that the employment effect of a cut in hours is often positive However, any cut in hours imposed on a monopoly union, without a cut in pay, will unambiguously lead to a drop in employment