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Democracy and the Supply of Labor
Journal article

Democracy and the Supply of Labor

David S. Brown
Studies in comparative international development, v 57(2)
2022

Abstract

Article General Social Sciences
The average number of hours we spend at work varies dramatically by country. Previous research focuses on tax policy, social security, and labor market regulation to explain the differences. This paper builds on previous work by focusing on politics. Specifically, it examines the relationship between democracy and the average number of hours worked per person employed. Using data on the supply of labor from the Penn World Tables 9.1, I find there is an important difference between democracies and dictatorships: as GDP/capita increases, individuals in democracies spend fewer hours at work than their counterparts in dictatorships. The results are robust to various specifications of the model that account for selection bias and data that are missing not at random (MNAR). These findings imply that the elections, civil rights, and the political liberties associated with democracy influence the amount of time people spend at work.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
#10 Reduced Inequalities
#1 No Poverty
#8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

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Web of Science research areas
Development Studies
International Relations
Political Science
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