“Working hours: preferences, well-being and productivity”

Key words: weekly working hours, well-being, productivity

This dissertation offers several insights on the preferences for weekly working hours. In the public sector in Germany, not everyone is equally dissatisfied with longer working hours; in fact, responses vary considerably depending on the start of the workday, gender and family status. Dutch men who work less than their male friends are less happy, which suggests that working hours represent a type of status symbol. Most of the respondents who participated in a survey about hypothetical trade-offs between leisure time and income did not want to change their current situation. Moreover, employees at a Dutch call centre were less productive per hour on longer working days, despite the majority working on a part-time basis.