Economic analysis of time allocation and health condition

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25380372
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Public finance/Public economy
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Kuroda Sachiko 早稲田大学, 教育・総合科学学術院, 教授 (50447588)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 労働時間 / メンタルヘルス / 時間配分 / ワークライフバランス / 長時間労働

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, I have mainly conducted the following three research. First theme is to identify the major determinants of long work hours of Japanese workers. Second theme is to look into the time allocation of middle-aged workers who face work-life-conflict. Since Japan is facing super-aged society, the number of workers who need to take care of their elderly parents while keeping his/her full-time job is rapidly growing. I found that time for elderly care is mainly concentrated during weekends because many workers become to work longer hours than before during weekdays. Third theme is the relationship between work and workers' mental health. Using workers' longitudinal data, I found that long work hours is one of the major factors that harms workers' mental health. Using firms' longitudinal data, I also found that firms with workers with bad mental health condition also suffers from lower profit rate.

Free Research Field

労働経済学