Documents Fitzgerald, Jared B. 2 results

"This study advances sociological research on the environmental impacts of working hours. Proponents of economic degrowth propose that a reduction in working time slows economic growth, which yields both social and environmental benefits. Building on such arguments, the authors conduct longitudinal analyses of the effects of average annual working hours on total energy consumption for samples of both developed and developing nations, and assess the extent to which the effect of working hours on energy consumption changes through time. The results suggest that the effect of working hours on energy consumption has increased through time, and this trend is observed for the samples of both developed and developing nations. The authors conclude by discussing the theoretical and policy implications of the findings."

"The well-established association between economic output and carbon emissions has led researchers in sociology and related disciplines to study new approaches to climate change mitigation, including policies that stabilize or reduce GDP growth. Within this degrowth approach, working time reduction is a key policy lever to reduce emissions as well as protect employment. In the United States, the abdication of responsibility for mitigation by the federal government has led to the emergence of state climate leadership. This study is the first to analyze the relationship between emissions and working hours at the state level. Our findings suggest that over the 2007–2013 period, state-level carbon emissions and average working hours have a strong, positive relationship, which holds across a variety of model estimation techniques and net of various political, economic, and demographic drivers of emissions. We conclude that working time reduction may represent a multiple dividend policy, contributing to enhanced quality of life and lower unemployment as well as emissions mitigation."