Has Work-sharing Worked in Finland?

1.1.1998 Työpapereita 148 Petri Böckerman, Jaakko Kiander

Abstract

The paper investigates the employment effects of working time reductions in Finland by dividing the economy into six main sectors from 1960 to 1996. Work-sharing works if there exists a tradeoff between the average working time and employment. This means that a reduction in average working hours delivers an increase in employment. The main result is that a reduction in actual average hours seems to deliver an increase in employment in the short run on condition that output does not deteriorate as a result of shorter average working time.