BackWork, machines and happiness
Work, machines and happiness
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The first thing to note is the striking increase in productivity for all the four countries between 1890 and 2006.
Interestingly, much of the change can be attributed to the changes in the economic structure. For instance, despite the famed efficiency of the Japanese, their total factor productivity stopped at around 60% of the level of the US in the early 1970s and hourly productivity came to a halt in the early 1990s. Part of the reason is certainly the deflation in Japan since 1990.
The authors point out another reason—the fact that “low productivity activities, such as agriculture, construction, trade and catering account for a larger share of the economy than in the other three countries." During a period of industrialization, however, capital deepening may be more important than other factors. In Japan between 1913 and 1950, it accounted for 70% of the growth in hourly productivity growth. Between 1950 and 1973 productivity growth was very high in France as a result of a significant decline in the share of agriculture in the economy.
Finally, the authors point out that the French worked 1,540 hours per head in 2006, compared with 1,710 hours for Americans, 1,610 hours for the British and 1,784 hours for the Japanese. Yet labour productivity per hour was the highest in France, followed by the US, the British and lastly the Japanese. All work and no play make Jack less productive than Jacques.
Years of Schooling, Human Capital and the Body Mass Index of European Females, by Giorgio Brunello, University of Padova, Danile Fabbri and Margherita Fort, University of Bologna. Paper published by Institute for the Study of Labour, Bonn
Life is not just about productivity but also about looking and feeling good.
Giorgio Brunello, Daniele Fabbri and Margherita Fort in their paper for the Institute of Study for Labour, Bonn, Years of Schooling, Human Capital and the Body Mass Index of European Females try to figure out whether education can help reduce obesity.
Their conclusion: “We find that a 10% increase in the years of schooling—which corresponds in our sample to slightly more than one additional year at school—reduces the average BMI of females by 1.65 to 2.27%, and the incidence of overweight and obese females by 10% to 16% and by nearly 11% to 16% respectively."
The authors say that since overweight and obese females in Europe have increased substantially between 1990 and now, their findings have a practical use. Adding one year of compulsory schooling is almost equivalent to rolling back the percentage of overweight females to its value in the early 1990s.
They also say that the impact of an extra year of education is highest among overweight females rather than obese ones.
In other words, higher education may be a good way of ensuring that you don’t become overweight later on in life. Forget jogging, read that book instead.
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