Two-Stage Optimal Matching Analysis of Workdays and Workweeks

Kan Man Yee (1) , Laurent Lesnard (2, 3)

1 St Hugh’s College, Oxford
2 OSC - Observatoire sociologique du changement (Sciences Po, CNRS)
3 CDSP - Centre de données socio-politiques de Sciences Po (Sciences Po, CNRS)

We apply Optimal Matching (OM) at two stages for the analysis of workdays and workweeks using data from the UK 2000 Time Use Survey. We only employ substitutions but no insertion or deletion when calculating the distance matrix between sequences. The costs are defined according to the transitional frequencies of events at a given time. Our study demonstrates how OM can be adapted to the number of periodicities and theoretical concerns of the topic by adjusting its costs and parameters. There are 7 main types of workweeks in the UK and standard workweeks account for only 1 in 4 workweeks.

Keywords: Cost; Work Time; Work Schedule; Optimal Matching

Domains: Humanities and Social Sciences; Sociology

Kan Man Yee, Laurent Lesnard. Two-Stage Optimal Matching Analysis of Workdays and Workweeks. 2009. ⟨hal-03459915⟩