TY - JOUR
T1 - Do Peers Affect Determination of Work Hours? Evidence Based on Unique Employee Data from Global Japanese Firms in Europe
AU - Kuroda, Sachiko
AU - Yamamoto, Isamu
N1 - Funding Information:
Data used in this paper are taken from a survey that the authors administered to workers of global Japanese companies operating either in the UK or Germany, and the longitudinal data from the Keio Household Panel Survey (Keio University). The authors deeply appreciate Shunichiro Bessho, Yuji Genda, Toshihiro Ihori, Akira Kawaguchi, Daiji Kawaguchi, Katsuyuki Kubo, Ryo Nakajima, Keisuke Nakamura, Fumio Ohtake, Hideo Owan, Ryuichi Tanaka, Dan Sasaki, Hiroki Sato for their valuable comments. The remaining errors are solely of our own. This research is supported by the Japanese government's Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [C] (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; Research No. 25380372 <Kuroda> and Research No. 23530289 <Yamamoto>), Program for Promoting Social Science Research Aimed at Solutions of Near-Future Problems "Creation of Employment System that enables Lifelong Growth for All People" (commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and Program of Intergenerational Equity (the grants from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology). A data appendix with additional results, and copies of the computer programs used to generate the results presented in the paper, are available from the corresponding author at yamamoto@fbc.keio.ac.jp.
PY - 2013/9
Y1 - 2013/9
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Group-interaction effect
KW - Neighborhood effect
KW - Paid leave
KW - Peer effect
KW - Work hours
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U2 - 10.1007/s12122-013-9164-2
DO - 10.1007/s12122-013-9164-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84884135618
SN - 0195-3613
VL - 34
SP - 359
EP - 388
JO - Journal of Labor Research
JF - Journal of Labor Research
IS - 3
ER -