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Does Sweden Really Have a Six Hour Day?

Can you reduce working hours without affecting productivity?

There have been reports that those radical Swedes have decided to reduce the working day to just six hours because, it has been claimed, productivity does not suffer. Before you all rush to the Swedish job pages this is not quite the case – but there have been trials in Sweden to test whether you can shorten people’s working hours without having an effect on output. Tim Harford talks to our Swedish correspondent Keith Moore about what the trials have found. He also speaks to professor John Pencavel, Emeritus Professor of Economics, at Stanford University, and finds that reducing working hours may not be as radical idea as it first appears.

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9 minutes

Last on

Mon 2 Jan 201707:50GMT

Broadcasts

  • Fri 30 Dec 201619:50GMT
  • Fri 30 Dec 201620:50GMT
  • Fri 30 Dec 201621:50GMT
  • Mon 2 Jan 201702:50GMT
  • Mon 2 Jan 201703:50GMT
  • Mon 2 Jan 201704:50GMT
  • Mon 2 Jan 201705:50GMT
  • Mon 2 Jan 201707:50GMT

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