The growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is not “significantly associated” with that of the number of hours worked, according to a recent study by two economists from the University of Berkeley and the World Bank.
To carry out this study, mentioned on Wednesday by Les Echos and consulted by AFP, Emmanuel Saez and Amory Gethin could sometimes access confidential data of the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Bank or Eurostat.
The two researchers compiled these data to prepare an unprecedented panorama of the number of hours worked in the world, which covers almost the entire world population (97%), with the exception of around twenty countries, including Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan or North Korea.
The global average of hours worked was calculated at 42.8 hours per week for a person with work.
Between 30 and 35 hours per week in France
The differences are strong among the countries: if people with work more than 45 hours per week in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Turkey, this number is between 30 and 35 hours on average in Italy, the United Kingdom, France or Germany.
In general, we work less hours in the richest and poorest countries, but more in emerging countries, they told the authors.
The two researchers also observed the evolution over time worked by the country and compared it to the evolution of GDP in these countries.
They discovered that “GDP growth was not significantly associated with the increase or decrease in working hours.”
On the other hand, “work at work correlates strongly with the amount of hours worked,” said the authors. In other words, the greater the work at work, the less the number of hours worked.
Emmanuel Saez and Amory Gethin also pointed out differences between genres, since in the world men are the source of 65% of the total hours worked, compared to 35% for women.
Source: BFM TV
