Labor hours in the United States and Europe: The role of different leisure preferences

Since 1900, annual working hours per worker have been generally declining in the United States and in the main European economies. During this simultaneous decline the Europeans initially worked fewer hours than their American counterparts, worked more than the Americans starting in the early 1930s, and once again worked less than the American from the early 1970s on. Using a two-country model, this article argues that this dynamic pattern can be brought about by differences in the valuation of leisure by individuals in the compared economies.