Publication details
A Note on Data Revisions of Aggregate Hours Worked Series: Implications for the Europe-US Hours Gap, 2017.
Working paperAuthor(s): Fuchs-Schündeln, Nicola; Bick, Alexander; Brüggemann, Bettina
Year of publication: 2017
Abstract: In this note we document that the OECD and the Conference Board’s Total Economy Database substantially revised their measures of hours worked over time. Relying on the data used by Rogerson (2006) and Ohanian et al. (2008), we find a Europe-US hours per person gap of -18% for the year 2003. Using the most recent releases of the same data yields for the year 2003 a gap that is 40% smaller, namely a gap of only -11%. Using labor force survey data, which are less subject to data revisions, we find a Europe-US hours gap of -19%.
Subject(s): economicsFull text: https://www.wiwi.uni-frankfurt.de/profs/fuchs/staff/fuchs/paper/bbf_EuropeUSGapMeasurement.pdf
