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Numerous individuals throughout international labour markets work hours in excess of their standard contractual hours. Overtime working is a vital consideration in the employment and wage decisions of many households and firms. From a policy perspective, overtime is at the centre of interest in the work sharing/unemployment trade off. Robert Hart presents the first comprehensive economic evaluation of this phenomenon, examining theoretical, empirical and policy aspects of overtime hours and pay. In a comparative assessment of labour supply, labour demand and compensating differential models of overtime behaviour, he utilises detailed international evidence drawn from the United States, Western Europe and Japan. Policy initiatives linked to job creation, work sharing, absenteeism and payroll taxation are critically assessed and presented in an intuitive manner. Displaying analytical rigour and empirical expertise, Robert Hart's work extends far beyond a mere summary of existing research to enliven and inform debate

On their intensive margins, firms in the British engineering industry adjusted to the severe falls in demand during the 1930s Depression by cutting hours of work. This provided an important means of reducing labour input and marginal labour costs, through movements from overtime to short-time schedules. Nominal wages dropped relatively modestly while real wages continued to rise throughout the trough years of the recession. Empirical work is based on cell data from a panel of 28 local labour markets for the period 1926-38. The data dichotomise between skilled fitters and unskilled labourers and between time-rate and piecerate workers. The findings have interesting implications for Phillips curve and wage curve studies.

We investigate wage-hours contracts within a four-period rent sharing model that incorporates asymmetric information. Distinctions are made among (a) an investment period, (b) a period in which the parties may separate (quits or layoffs) or continue rent accumulation and sharing, (c) a post investment period and, (d) retirement. We establish that increases in both wage rates and hours of work in the post-investment period serve to minimise sub-optimal separations and, moreover that both wage and hours schedules are concave. The model is tested with the British Household Panel Survey (1991-1997) and with the British Labour Force Survey (1993/4).

Between mid-1939 and mid-1943 almost 2.2 million additional women were recruited into Britain's essential war industries. These consisted, predominantly, of young women recruited into metal and chemical industries. Much of the increased labour supply was achieved through government directed labour initiatives. This culminated, in January 1942, with the Control of Engagement Order whereby women between the ages of 18 and 40 who either entered the labour market or who changed employment were compulsorily directed into jobs and industries that were vital to the war effort. There were also many woman volunteers for such work, partly due to the fact that extreme labour scarcity drove up relative female wage rates. At least 42% of the 18-20 age cohorts and 32% of the 21-25 age cohorts in 1943 worked in the essential industries. Two-thirds of those involved owed their jobs to wartime industrial expansion. The majority of such women entered a world of work that had been previously dominated by men. They obtained considerable training, job experience and pay advantages compared to subsequent age cohorts who were not eligible for war work. This bestowed on them subsequent labour market advantages that would otherwise not have occurred. Using a regression discontinuity design the empirical work shows that the long term earnings benefits of those age cohorts eligible for conscription, measured 30 years after the war, were in the order of between 2% and 9% higher than the age cohorts that followed them.

This paper adds to the literature on the relationship between military service and long-term real earnings. Based on a regression discontinuity design it compares the earnings of age cohorts containing British men who were required to undertake post-war National Service with later cohorts who were exempt. It also compares age cohorts containing men who were conscripted into military service during the first half of WWII and those with later spells of conscription. It argues that, in general, we should not expect large long-term real earnings differences between conscript and non-conscript cohorts since important elements of the former received military training and experience of direct value in the civilian jobs market. In the case of call-up during WWII there is even more reason to expect that there was no major disadvantages to those conscripted. This occurred largely because their pre-military job status was preserved due to the employment of substitute women workers who acted as a temporary employment buffer thereby protecting serving men's positions on the jobs hierarchy.

Using the British New Earnings Survey Panel Data (NESPD), this paper examines male and female real wage cyclicality over the period 1975–2001. Estimation is undertaken separately for job stayers and job movers. 'Stayers' are defined with respect to single jobs within the company, while 'movers' refers to individuals changing jobs both within and between companies. Core estimates concern real hourly standard wage rates. Additional features include differentiating between manual and non‐manual workers and distinguishing between hourly wage rates and hourly wage earnings.

This paper shows that wage–unemployment elasticities derived from estimated wage curves and Phillips curves may be critically dependent on the measurement of wages. Incorporating hourly wage earnings that include the influence of overtime payments can lead to seriously distorted results. Meaningful elasticities are obtained only if hourly standard wages form the basis of analysis. Work is based on a unique data set describing two homogeneous blue–collar occupational groups—skilled fitters and unskilled labourers—in the British engineering industry. Each group is also divided into timeworkers and piece–rate workers. Data are aggregated into a panel of 28 local labour markets and cover the highly contrasting periods 1928–38 and 1954–66.