The Effect of Working Hours on Subjective Well-Being

This paper investigates the potential relationship between individual average working hours per week and individual subjective well-being (SWB). This relationship has only been suggested within the economics of happiness, but never fully explored, even though its potential is arguably important within the field. Using a Dutch household survey, this paper finds evidence for the existence of an individual optimum at which individual subjective well-being is maximized with regards to the individual working hours. The end result is a justification of controlling for working hours for research based on subjective well-being. Next to that, the suggestion is made that policy should take into account the possible effects of deviating from such optima given certain workforce characteristics. As recommendation, these results suggest that further investigation of the driving factors of these optima could be valuable for policy makers.