Cowling, Keith and Poolsombat, Rattanasuda (2007) Advertising and labour supply: why do Americans work such long hours? Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick, Department of Economics. (Warwick economic research papers).

Preview

PDF WRAP_cowling_twerp_789.pdf - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (154Kb)

Abstract

Americans are working much longer hours in the paid labour market than workers in Western Europe. Much of the debate focuses on whether this is the result of voluntary worker choice or whether this is a decision imposed on workers by their employers. This paper shows that American hours of work have become more or less stabilised as a result of the rising intensity of advertising in the U.S. : advertising may raise the desired amount of marketed goods and services for which workers find it necessary to work long hours.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Advertising -- Social aspects -- United States, Labor market -- United States, Hours of labor -- United States, Advertising -- Effective frequency
Series Name:	Warwick economic research papers
Publisher:	University of Warwick, Department of Economics
Place of Publication:	Coventry
Date:	2007
Number:	No.789
Number of Pages:	38
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
References:	Alberto Alesina, Edward Glaeser and Bruce Sacerdote, “Work and Leisure in the U.S. and Europe: why so different?,” CEPR No. 5140 (2005). Baran, Paul A. and Paul M. Sweezy, Monopoly Capital: an essay on the American economic and social order, Monthly Review Press, (New York ; London 1966). Bell, Linda and Richard Freeman, “Why Do Americans and Germans Work Different Hours?”, In Institutional Frameworks and Labor Market Performance: Comparative Views on the U.S. and German Economies, ed. Buttler, F., Franz, W., Schettkat R. and Soskice D., Routledge, New York, (1995),101–31. Blanchard, Olivier (2004) “The Economic Future of Europe” NBER Working Paper 10310, February. Forthcoming, Journal of Economic Perspectives Blanchflower, David G. and Andrew J. Oswald, “Well-Being Over Time in Britain and the USA,” Journal of Public Economics, 88 (2004), 1359-1386. Blundell, Richard and Thomas MaCurdy, “Labour Supply: A Review of Alternative Approaches”, In Handbook of Labor Economics, 3, ed. Ashenfelter, O. and Card, D., (North-Holland, Amsterdam 1999). Brack, John and Keith Cowling, “Advertising and Labour Supply: Workweek and Workyear in U.S. Manufacturing Industries, 1919–76,” Kyklos, 36(1983), 285–303. Coleman, Mary T. and John Pencavel, “Changes in Work Hours of Male Employees, 1940–1988,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 46 (1993), 262–283. Crafts, Nicholas, “Fifty Yers of Economic Growth in Western Europe: no longer catching up but falling behind?,” World Economics, 5 (2004), April-June Dickey, David A. and Wayne A. Fuller, “Distribution of the Estimators for Autoregressive Time Series with a Unit Root,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, 74 (1979), 427–431. Duesenberry, James S., Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, (Oxford University Press, Oxford 1967). Fraser, Stuart and David Paton, “Does Advertising Increase Labour Supply? Time Series Evidence from the U.K.,” Applied Economics, 35 (2003), 1357–1368. Galbraith, John K., The Affluent Society, (Houghton Mifflin, New York 1958). George, David, “Working Longer Hours: Pressure from the Boss or Pressure from the Marketers?,” Review of Social Economy, 55 (1997), 33–65. Giulietti, Monica and Meloria Meschi, “L’Offerta di Lavoro Femminile: Persistenza e Partecipazione,” Economia and Lavoro, 4 (1991), 57–71. Gordon Robert J., “Two Centuries of Economic Growth: Europe Chasing the American Frontier,” NBER Working Papers No. 10662 (2002). Gunderson, Morley G. and Craig C. Riddell, Labour Market Economics: Theory, Evidence and Policy in Canada, 2nd edition, (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, Toronto 1988). Harberger Arnold C. “Taxation, Resource Allocation and Welfare” in J.F. Due (ed.) The Role of Direct and Indirect Taxes in the Federal Reserve System, (Princeton University Press, Princeton 1964). International Labor Organisation (2002) Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM): Geneva. Johansen, Soren, “Statistical Analysis of Cointegration Vectors”, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 12 (1988), 231-254. Johansen, Soren and Katarina Juselius, “Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Inference on Cointegration – with Applications to the Demand for Money”, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 52 (1990), 169-210. Jones, Ethel B., “New Estimates of Hours of Work Per Week and Hourly Earnings, 1900-1957,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 43 (1963), 374-385. Kenny, Charles, “Does Growth cause Happiness, or Does Happiness cause Growth?”, Kyklos, 52 (1999), 3-26. Lewis, Gregg H., “Hours of Work and Hours of Leisure” Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Meeting of the IRRA, (Arno Press Inc., New York 1957). Matthews, Robert C. O., Charles H. Feinstein, and John C. Odling-Smee, British Economic Growth 1856 to 1973, (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1982). Pencavel, John, “Labor Supply of Men: A Survey”, In Handbook of Labor Economics, 1, ed. Ashenfelter, O. and Layard, R., (North-Holland, Amsterdam 1986). Prescott, Edward C., “Prosperity and Depression,” American Economic Review, 92 (2002), 1-15. Prescott, Edward C., “Why Do Americans Work So Much More than Europeans?,” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis: Minneapolis Quarterly Review, 28 (2004), 2–13. Rothschild, R. (1942) “A Note on Advertising”, Economic Journal, 52, 112-121. Schor, Juliet B., The Overworked American: the Unexpected Decline of Leisure, (Basic Books, New York 1991). Stewart, Mark B. and Joanna K. Swaffield, “Constraints on the Desired Hours of Work of British Men,” Economic Journal, 107 (1997), 520-535.
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/1415

Request changes to a record

Actions (login required)

View Item