Work Sharing, Employment and Shiftwork

Increased shiftwork is often discussed in connection with reductions of working time in order to promote work sharing. This paper provides a model in which shiftwork responds endogenously. It is shown that there is no presumption that shiftwork will respond in such a way as to guarantee a positive employment effect. Relative factor costs will be affected in such a way that firms tend to substitute capital services in the form of shiftwork for employment at the same time as there may be negative scale effects. The presumption is that a reduction of working time will have negative employment effects. Copyright 1989 by Royal Economic Society.