Who is Afraid of Longer Shopping Hours?

Attempts to liberalize shopping hours often fail because of the resistance and arguments of retail sector employees who fear that this would cause their working conditions to deteriorate. This paper presents the results of an empirical study that compared the willingness of sales employees (insiders) to work during fringe hours with that of people not employed in the sector but who could imagine doing such work (outsiders). The results show that outsiders are significantly more frequently prepared to work during fringe hours than are insiders. This leads us to assume that the same conflicts of interest that the insider-outsider theory postulates for wage demands also arise regarding working hours, and that this can lead to working time rigidity and involuntary unemployment.