Hours worked for OECD countries

Ohanian, L. E. and A. Raffo. 2012. "Aggregate Hours Worked in Oecd Countries: New Measurement and Implications for Business Cycles." Journal of Monetary Economics, 59(1), 40-56.

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Specifically, we show that employment is a poor proxy for labor input in many OECD countries, as changes in hours per worker are about as large as changes in employment. We also find that employment-based labor wedges are much too large in Europe, given high European firing costs, while hours-based labor wedges are comparatively too small. Finally, we find that the Great Recession is a substantial puzzle in Europe, as both employment-based and hours-based labor wedges are nearly zero in many European countries. This stands in sharp contrast to labor wedges in the U.S. during the Great Recession, or labor wedges in other European recessions, both of which are an order of magnitude larger.
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