Leisure and abundance

Can we get out of the rat race?

Keynes promised shorter working hours and greater prosperity by now. As remote as it sounds, that vision is still possible.

Why haven’t working hours in rich industrialized countries declined more sharply or even increased at times since the early 1980s? And why do average working hours vary so much across rich economies? These are the questions addressed in our paper Varieties of the rat race. Working hours in the age of abundance.