Work Attitudes, Work Conditions and Hours Constraints : An Explorative, Cross-national Analysis

In this paper, individuals' desire to work more or less than they actually do (hours constraints) is analysed in nine OECD countries using data from the 1989 International Social Survey Program (ISSP). Our results show that hours constraints deviate substantially from country to country. However, in all countries, the proportion of individuals wanting to work more (and earn more) than they actually do is larger than the fraction of workers wanting to work less (and earn less). Socio-economic and demographic characteristics, work attitudes, and work conditions have a significant effect on hours constraints.