Elke Wolf – författare

The more I live the more I learn. The more I learn the more I realize the less I know (Alan and Manly Bergman) This book is a slightly revised version of my dissertation thesis "Wages, hours restrictions and employment" accepted in July 2001 by the Department of Economics at Mannheim University. Most of the studies are part of the re­ search project "Working hours flexibility and employment" (Arbeitszeitjlexi­ bilisierung und Beschiijtigung) which was conducted at the Centre for Euro­ pean Economic Research (ZEW) with financial support by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung. Now that all the work is complete, nothing remains but to thank all the people who supported the writing of my thesis. Firstly, I am indebted to my advisor Prof. Wolfgang Franz, who always furthered my academic work and encouraged me to take opportunities beyond the standard path. His guiding questions and comments were very valuable in gaining an overview of the whole issue. Furthermore, I am especially grateful to Prof. Daniel Hamermesh, my second advisor. I gained tremendously from the fruitful discussions during my stay at the University of Texas in Austin. His encouragement and verve were essential support factors in the completion of my work. Prof. Arthur van Soest and Prof. Franc;ois Laisney both contributed to the technical and methodological standard of my analysis by patiently discussing various model specifications and nerve-racking convergence problems.

This book contributes to clarify the conditions of jobs with shorter working hours and reckons the potential for increasing part-time employment in Germany. Two crucial obstacles of part-time employment are addressed: Firstly, the wage structure and its implications for labor supply, and secondly, the lack of job offers for part-time employees. The Netherlands - known as the first part-time economy in the world - is used as a benchmark for the German case. The empirical analyses in this book are based on representative household data for Gemany and the Netherlands.