Youth labour supply and the minimum hours constraint - the case of single males

Abstract

Traditionally economists estimate labour supply functions by assuming that the observed working hours the desired working hours. But if employers require some minimum working hours, e. g. 40 hours a week,then the results obtained by the traditional approach will be misleading since the observed working hours might not be the desired working hours. This paper tests the hypothesis of no minimum hours constraint. It also develops an econometric model explicity considering the minimum hours while estimating a youth labour supply function.