Jon C. Messenger – författare

The expert contributors examine the resurgence in the use of work sharing as a job preservation strategy via country case studies of work-sharing programmes implemented across the globe during the Great Recession of 2008-2009. These studies clearly illustrate that work sharing has been successful as a crisis-response measure in a number of countries. Lessons learned and their implications are presented alongside prescriptions on how to design permanent work-sharing policies that would provide appropriate incentives to generate positive effects for employment and promote a sustainable and job-rich economic recovery.

This enlightening book will prove invaluable to academics, researchers, students and policymakers in the fields of labor economics, public sector economics and social policy.

Contributors: L. Bellmann, A. Crimmann, J. Flecker, H.-D. Gerner, N. Ghosheh, S. Glosser, L. Golden, M.J. González Fernández, J.C. Messenger, K. Ogura, A. Schönauer, F. Wießner, E. Yeldan

The gradual reduction in weekly working hours in the first half of the last century, which culminated in the widespread adoption of the 'standard' working week by the 1960s, was grounded in a concern for health and safety and for the preservation of time outside of paid labour.

Over the last few decades, however, this progressive standardization of working time has given way to a diversification and individualization in working hours as employers have responded to the competitive pressures of globalization by requiring that productivity be enhanced through changes in working-time schedules.

As we enter the new century, a common goal has emerged: the removal or liberaliZation of restrictions on unsocial hours and on the variation of working hours. This books draws together an international team of contributors to examine the process.