| dc.description.abstract | Paid working patterns are currently regulated by governments around the world for a
range of social and economic reasons: to increase labour supply and skills; to provide
a strong tax base to support an ageing population; to help people reconcile work and
family life over increasingly diversified life courses; and to be in line with the
general principle of the activating, employment led welfare state. Environmental
considerations rarely feature in the design or evaluation of working time policy.
Nevertheless, various authors working on policies for sustainable development argue
that reductions in average paid working time could lead to environmental benefits: as
people work less, they in turn earn less, and so consume less, resulting in lower
environmental impacts from lower levels of production of products.
This thesis takes this argument as its starting point, and synthesises these distinct
perspectives on working time and its regulation to address two key questions: what
level of environmental benefits could arise from such reductions in paid working
time?; and what are the implications for the design of working time policy?
The research addresses these questions, taking the case of greenhouse gas emissions,
and the UK and the Netherlands in the early 2000s as case studies. Using household
expenditure survey data and data on product emissions intensities, the relationship
between paid working time and emissions is analysed at both the household and
national levels. At the household level, statistically and substantively significant
correlations are found between higher levels of paid work and higher levels of
consumption and so greenhouse gas emissions. The effects on emissions of
hypothetical changes in the working patterns of the national populations are then
modelled. The research estimates that meeting current national objectives to increase
labour market participation rates would increase national greenhouse gas emissions
by 0.6-0.7%, a cost that might be considered acceptable if it also achieves its aims of
reducing income poverty, benefit dependency, and social exclusion. Meanwhile,
widespread reductions in average working hours and increased use of career breaks,
with corresponding reductions in income, would reduce national emissions. The
scenarios modelled (a 20% reduction in the working hours of full time workers, and
increasing use of 3 month career breaks) lead to reductions of 3-4.5% in national
emissions, with the corresponding increases in “leisure” time, reductions in income
inequality, and reduced gender imbalances in the distribution of paid work
potentially also improving wellbeing, social cohesion, and gender equality in work
and care.
The results indicate that environmental factors warrant consideration in the design
and evaluation of working time policy, and that challenging but achievable levels of
working time reduction could contribute a small but significant share to meeting
greenhouse gas emissions targets. Policy instruments would need to address a range
of values, attitudes and norms around employment and consumption, as well as
employer and situational factors, if substantial working time reduction were to be
achieved. Reconciling diverse environmental, social and economic goals also
requires careful policy design, particularly for certain demographic groups such as
the low income, who would need financial and other support to turn rights to reduce
working time into functional freedoms that they could utilise. | en |
