The Week
Is a five-day workweek followed by a two-day weekend a socially optimal schedule? This paper presents a model in which labor productivity and the marginal utility of leisure evolve endogenously over the workweek. Labor productivity is shaped by two...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/03/26067880/week http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24138 |
| Summary: | Is a five-day workweek followed by a
two-day weekend a socially optimal schedule? This paper
presents a model in which labor productivity and the
marginal utility of leisure evolve endogenously over the
workweek. Labor productivity is shaped by two forces:
restfulness, which decreases over the workweek, and memory,
which improves over the workweek. The structural parameters
of the model are disciplined using daily variation in
electricity usage per worker. The results suggest that
increases in the ratio of vacation to workdays lead to
output losses. A calibration of the model suggests that a
2-3 day workweek followed by a 1 day weekend can increase welfare. |
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