The Timing of Labor Demand

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IZA Seminar

Place: Schaumburg-Lippe-Str. 9, 53113 Bonn

Date: 02.09.2008, 12:15 - 13:30

   

Presentation by 

Daniel S. Hamermesh (University of Texas at Austin)
   

Abstract:

We examine the timing of firms’ operations in a formal model of labor demand. Merging a variety of data sets from Portugal from 2003, we describe temporal patterns of firms’ demand for labor and estimate production-functions and relative labor-demand equations. The results demonstrate the existence of substitution of employment across times of the day/week and show that legislated penalties for work at irregular hours induce firms to alter their operating schedules. The results suggest a role for such penalties in an unregulated labor market, such as the United States, in which unusually large fractions of work are performed at night and on weekends.

   
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