Within-firm inequality in workdays and labour productivity: evidence from linked employer-employee Italian data

Abstract

Using a longitudinal dataset built by merging survey and administrative datasets on Italian firms, we investigate the association between productivity growth and labour flexibility by focusing on the role of inequality of yearly workdays within firms. In addition to a negative association between productivity and the share of fixed-term employment, we find a further negative association between this type of within-firm inequality and productivity. This finding suggests that higher inequality in workdays may weaken cooperation among workers, affecting labour productivity.