Work, leisure, and the Monday Blue: Does culture matter?

Authors

  • Iordanis Petsas Department of Economics and FinanceUniversity of Scranton http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5275-5403
  • Fengyun Li School of Finance, Renmin University of China, China
  • Jinghan Cai Department of Economics, Finance and International Business, University of Scranton, US

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.12.3.2023.203-212

Keywords:

Monday Blue hypothesis; Culture; Day-of-the-week Effect

Abstract

This paper finds that national culture differences can explain the variation in the cross-country day-of-the-week (DOW) effect. More specifically, countries with lower individualism and higher power distance index tend to have a stronger DOW effect. We argue that in countries with lower individualism and higher power distance index, the distinction between weekend leisure and weekday work is more prominent, leading to more pessimistic feelings on Mondays, and subsequently to a stronger DOW effect. Our results support the Monday Blue hypothesis.

Author Biography

Iordanis Petsas, Department of Economics and FinanceUniversity of Scranton

Professor and Chair,

Department of Economics and Finance

Kania School of Management

University of Scranton

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Published

09-10-2023

How to Cite

Petsas, I., Li, F., & Cai, J. (2023). Work, leisure, and the Monday Blue: Does culture matter?. Economics and Business Letters, 12(3), 203–212. https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.12.3.2023.203-212