Why do Europeans work so little compared to Americans? Can they be induced to work more without reducing labour productivity? If so, how? This volume explores these questions and many more in order to understand the changing nature of the hours worked in the USA and EU, as well as the effects of policies that impose working hour restrictions.

Understanding Transatlantic Differences in Working Hours ; PART I THE DISTRIBUTION OF TOTAL WORK IN THE EU AND USA ; 1. Time Use and Work Timing Inside and Outside the Market ; 2. Explaining the Data ; 3. Home Production, Set-up Costs, and Welfare ; Comments by Alberto Alesina and Christopher Pissarides ; PART II LABOUR MARKET EFFECTS OF WORK-SHARING ARRANGEMENTS IN EUROPE ; 4. Relocation of Working Time and Employment ; 5. Working Time Developments in Germany ; 6. The Two French Work-Sharing Experiments: Employment and Productivity Effects ; 7. Unions, Working Hours, and Absence: Sweden ; 8. Work-sharing, Part-time Employment, and Childcare ; 9. Conclusion ; Comments by Guiseppe Nicoletti and Jan van Ours ; Final Remarks by Olivier Blanchard, Steve Nickell, and Guido Tabellini

A national of Italy, Tito Boeri is currently Professor of Economics at Bocconi University, Milan and acts as Scientific Director of the Fondazione Rodolfo Debenedetti. He is research fellow at CEPR, IZA and Igier-Bocconi. After obtaining his Ph.D. in economics from New York University, he was senior economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development from 1987 to 1996. He was also consultant to the European Commission, International Monetary Fund, the ILO, the World Bank, and the Italian Government. Michael C. Burda has been a member of the School of Business and Economics at the Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin since 1993. In 1987, he received his PhD at Harvard University, after which he was an assistant, and then associate professor of economics at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France. Together with Charles Wyplosz he has authored the textbook Macroeconomics: A European Text (Oxford University Press, 1993). A fourth edition was published in 2005. He is a research fellow at the Centre of Economic Policy Research (CEPR) London, Institut der Zukunft der Arbeit (IZA) Bonn, and Center for Economic Studies (CES) Munich. Francis Kramarz is the Head of the Research Department at CREST-INSEE, the research branch of the French Statistical Institute. He is also an associate professor at Ecole Polytechnique and a research fellow of CEPR (London) and of IZA. He is an associate editor of the Journal of the European Economic Association and Labour Economics. He has been nominated by the French Prime Minister at the recently instituted "Conseil d'Orientation de l'Emploi" as a "qualified (expert) member".