The labour market returns to sleep

Costa-Font, Joan ORCID: 0000-0001-7174-7919, Fleche, Sarah ORCID: 0000-0001-8927-075X and Pagan, Ricardo (2024) The labour market returns to sleep. Journal of Health Economics, 93. ISSN 0167-6296

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Abstract

Despite the growing prevalence of insufficient sleep among individuals, we still know little about the labour market return to sleep. To address this gap, we use longitudinal data from Germany and leverage exogenous fluctuations in sleep duration caused by variations in time and local sunset times. Our findings reveal that a one-hour increase in weekly sleep is associated with a 1.6 percentage point rise in employment and a 3.4% increase in weekly earnings. Such effect on earnings stems from productivity improvements given that the number of working hours decreases with longer sleep duration. We also identify a key mechanism driving these effects, namely the enhanced mental well-being experienced by individuals who sleep longer hours.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-h...
Additional Information:	© 2023 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Health Policy Centre for Economic Performance
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
JEL classification:	J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J12 - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J13 - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Date Deposited:	16 Nov 2023 10:03
Last Modified:	01 Dec 2024 20:51
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/120758

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