Working Hours in Supply Chain Chinese and Thai Factories: Evidence from the Fair Labor Association's ‘Soccer Project’

Smyth, Russell; Qian, Xiaolei; Nielsen, Ingrid; Kaempfer, Ines

doi:10.1111/j.1467-8543.2011.00881.x

Cited by 21 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 45 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One existing study for China that does consider the employer dimension is Smyth et al . 's (). That study uses matched employer and employee data from the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to examine the correlates of excessive hours worked in Chinese and Thai supply chain factories.…”

Section: Existing Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Working hours in Chinese enterprises: evidence from matched employer–employee data

Mishra

Smyth

2013

Industrial Relations Journal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this article is to explore the factors that are correlated with hours worked in China. A distinguishing feature of the study is that we used representative‐matched employer and employee data. Hence, in addition to the usual worker characteristics examined in conventional economic models of labour supply, we also took into account the influence of firm characteristics and policies on the number of hours worked. The results suggested that in addition to the hourly wage rate, labour supply characteristics and human capital characteristics of the individual, firm‐level differences are important in explaining variation in weekly hours worked in Chinese firms. In particular, our results suggested that there is a norm of longer working hours in firms that employ a high proportion of female and migrant workers, that hours worked are less in firms which pay overtime and that hours worked are less in firms in which labour disputes have disrupted production. The policy implications of Chinese firms reducing hours worked were discussed.

show abstract

Section: Existing Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our study differs from Smyth et al . () in four respects. First, that study focused on the determinants of excessive hours worked, defined as in excess of 60 hours per week, while we look at the determinants of hours worked more generally.…”

Section: Existing Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Working hours in Chinese enterprises: evidence from matched employer–employee data

Mishra

Smyth

2013

Industrial Relations Journal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In a recent survey of Chinese workers, for example, respondents pointed to long work hours as one of three major reasons for health problems (Tang, 2013). Some therefore argue that the unprecedented economic growth in China may have taken place on the back of employees working long hours (Smyth, Qian, Nielsen, & Kaempfer, 2013). As stated by Kingston (cited in Oster, 2014), due to the Confucian belief in total dedication, Chinese employers are prone to overburden their employees.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long work hours and health in China

Wang

Otterbach

Sousa‐Poza

2015

China Economic Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. www.econstor.eu Terms of use: Documents in D I S C U S S I O N P A P E R S E R I E S NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYChina has one of the longest weekly work hours in the world, and it is claimed that about 600,000 Chinese people die every year because of "Guolaosi" -death by overwork (Monet, 2014). The literature in several academic disciplines provides evidence that long work hours can be detrimental to health -particularly showing adverse health effects of long work hours on subjective health. However, this large body of literature is dominated by research in Western countries, and results are mixed with regards to objective health outcomes. For China especially, the empirical evidence of such a relationship between long work hours and health is limited to only three cross-sectional studies using subjective (self-reported) health measures. Moreover, the results of these studies are mixed.Thus, the aim of our study is to examine the impact of long work hours on health among Chinese employees aged 18-65. Using longitudinal data from the China Health and Nutrition survey (CHNS), this study is the most comprehensive analysis for China, where possible adverse health effects of overwork become an important health issue. We analyze a broad array of health measures, including not only measures of subjective health but also several measures of objective health (e.g., high blood pressure and obesity), and additionally explore several possible pathways through which long work hours could affect health. In particular, we assess the relation between long work hours and specific lifestyles, such as time spent sleeping, preparing meals, and engaging in physical activities.Our results indicate that working long (50+) hours per week has a small negative effect on self-reported health and slightly increases the probability of high blood pressure. Long work hours have diverse impacts on different aspects of individual lifestyles, yet magnitudes are small, and we find no significant relationship between long work hours and obesity. Overall, our results provide limited evidence that long work hours in China are seriously affecting health or lifestyles. The general conclusion of our analysis is that long work hours do not seem to have any strong effects on several commonly used subjective or objective measures of health. Nor do our results provide any evidence that long work hours significantly influence diets, physical activity, or sleep time. This contrasts strongly with existing e...

show abstract

“…Second, living conditions in factory dormitories are often poor (Smith and Pun 2006). In particular, long working hours and lack of work-life divide associated with living on site in a factory dormitory can result in psychological problems, which are associated with a higher proclivity to engage in gambling (Smyth et al 2013). In several studies, gamblers have reported that gambling represents an avenue, albeit tem porarily, to distract them from problems and worries (Petry 2005).…”

Section: {Continued)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Participation and expenditure of migrants in the illegal lottery in China’s Pearl River Delta

Cheng

Smyth

Sun

2014

Eurasian Geography and Economics

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Using a unique data-set from the Pearl River Delta in China, we examine the factors associated with rural-urban migrants' participation in and expenditure on illegal gambling. The characteristics that have the largest marginal effects on participation and expenditure are gender, whether one also participates in the legal lottery and playing mahjong and other card games. Of the variables specific to the migration experience, we find that living in a factory dormitory increases the probability of participating in the illegal lottery, and that migrants who are unwilling to give up their farmland are less likely to participate in the illegal lottery. We also find that having a network of female friends is negatively correlated with participation in the illegal lottery. However, other variables specific to migrants, such as willingness to obtain a local hukou and remittances, were found to have an insignificant effect on participation.

show abstract

Working Hours in Supply Chain Chinese and Thai Factories: Evidence from the Fair Labor Association's ‘Soccer Project’

Cited by 21 publications

References 45 publications

Working hours in Chinese enterprises: evidence from matched employer–employee data

Working hours in Chinese enterprises: evidence from matched employer–employee data

Long work hours and health in China

Participation and expenditure of migrants in the illegal lottery in China’s Pearl River Delta

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About