Peter H. van der Meer

What makes workers happy

This article answers the question what makes workers happy? It does so by combining insights from micro-economics, sociology and psychology. Basis is the standard utility function of a worker that includes income and hours of work and is elaborated with job characteristics. In this way it is possible to answer whether part-time workers are happier than full-time workers. The utility function is estimated on basis of the European Social Survey 2004 which contains all necessary information. The results show that workers optimize income and hours of work as predicted by micro-economics, but also that part-time workers are happier than full-time workers. Challenging work with a high level of autonomy makes the workers happy, work pressure makes workers unhappy. Higher educated workers are unhappier than lower educated workers, we find a negative effect of education, but this is compensated by the type of jobs these higher educated hold.

Flexibility practices, wages and productivity: evidence from Norway

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test whether the use of numerical and functional flexibility practices in firms affect their performance.Design/methodology/approach – A combined employer/employee Norwegian data set is used to estimate production function like equations. The data stem from a questionnaire among Norwegian work organizations conducted in 2003 and are supplemented by register data from Statistics Norway about the organizations and their employees.Findings – Numerical flexibility measures are negatively associated with wages and productivity per employee, although the association is stronger with wages than with productivity. This supports the idea that numerical flexibility fits with a low‐cost strategy. It is also found that a negative association between functional flexibility and wages and productivity per employee, with the association once again stronger with wages than with productivity, contrary to the hypothesis. The idea that high‐commitment human resource (HR) management h...

Is the gender wage gap declining in the Netherlands

In this paper I try to answer the question whether the gender wage gap in the Netherlands is declining. I posed this question because on several other indicators labour market differences between men and women in the Netherlands declined or disappeared altogether. First of all the labour market participation of women has increased and women on the labour market are no longer a small minority. Second, the difference in productive characteristics between men and women is disappearing. Third, both product and labour markets have become increasingly competitive, due to changes in regulation like anti-trust laws, which should have an effect on the gender wage gap. Contrary to these expectations I did not find a declining gender wage gap. The data in Dutch Institute for Labour Studies (OSA) labour supply panel show a steady gender gap of approximately nineteen per cent. At most twenty-five to thirty per cent of the gap can be explained by productivity differences. The largest part of the gender wage gap is due to ‘price’ differences. Both cross-section and panel analyses give the same answer.In this paper I try to answer the question whether the gender wage gap in the Netherlands is declining. I posed this question because on several other indicators labour market differences between men and women in the Netherlands declined or disappeared altogether. First of all the labour market participation of women has increased and women on the labour market are no longer a small minority. Second, the difference in productive characteristics between men and women is disappearing. Third, both product and labour markets have become increasingly competitive, due to changes in regulation like anti-trust laws, which should have an effect on the gender wage gap. Contrary to these expectations I did not find a declining gender wage gap. The data in Dutch Institute for Labour Studies (OSA) labour supply panel show a steady gender gap of approximately nineteen per cent. At most twenty-five to thirty per cent of the gap can be explained by productivity differences. The largest part of the gender wage gap is due to price differences. Both cross-section and panel analyses give the same answer.

Quality of work and job satisfaction: comparing female part-time work in four European countries

ABSTRACT Adding to the debate on the integrative or marginalizing nature of female part-time work, this article provides a comparative analysis of the implications of female part-time work for different intrinsic job quality dimensions and job satisfaction. Drawing on national micro-data from Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, our multivariate analyses show cross-national similarities in terms of lower job learning opportunities for female part-timers. We found a significantly higher incidence of repetitiveness only among Swedish female part-timers and lower degrees of task discretion among British, Dutch, and Swedish women working part-time hours. Female part-timers were either equally satisfied with their work as female full-timers or even more satisfied. This held true also after accounting for the lower intrinsic job quality of part-time work. While women working part-time hours were as affected by their job quality characteristics as were full-timers, we conclude that the shorter hours of work per se provide an important additional source of job satisfaction.

Unpaid overtime in the Netherlands: forward- or backward-looking incentives?

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to test forward-looking incentives against backward-looking incentives. Design/methodology/approach - – Wage growth model to estimate forward-looking effects of unpaid overtime and a probit model of participation in unpaid overtime controlling for excessive pay to estimate backward-looking effects. The authors use data form the OSA labour supply panel (years 1994, 1996 and 1998). Findings - – The importance of backward-looking incentives is demonstrated in an empirical analysis of participation in unpaid overtime. The authors show that employees who have relatively good wages now or who have had relatively good wages in the recent past participate more often in unpaid overtime. The authors also show that participation in unpaid overtime does not lead to extra wage growth. Research limitations/implications - – These results imply that involvement in unpaid overtime is to be explained from backward-looking incentives, not from forward-looking incentives. The paper concludes that backward-looking incentives deserve more attention in the economic literature, especially as they are well-accepted as work motivation devices by employees. Limitations are the length of the panel study (four years) and the fact that the data are restricted to one country (the Netherlands). Social implications - – Personnel policies should focus more on the intrinsic motivation of personnel rather than on extrinsic motivation. Originality/value - – This is the first paper to test both forward- and backward-looking incentives simultaneously.