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Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life

Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.

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More or Less: Does Sweden Really Have a Six Hour Day?

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Does Sweden really have a six hour day?

30/12/2016 GMT

Does Sweden Really Have a Six Hour Day?

BBC World Service - More or Less, Does Sweden Really Have a Six Hour Day?

Can you reduce working hours without affecting productivity?

There have been reports that those radical Swedes have decided to reduce the working day to just six hours because, it has been claimed, productivity does not suffer. Before you all rush to the Swedish job pages this is not quite the case – but there have been trials in Sweden to test whether you can shorten people’s working hours without having an effect on output. Tim Harford talks to our Swedish correspondent Keith Moore about what the trials have found. He also speaks to professor John Pencavel, Emeritus Professor of Economics, at Stanford University, and finds that reducing working hours may not be as radical idea as it first appears.

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