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The Right to Disconnect

DECONEX
High-paying industries, such as law and finance, often demand long working hours. While long working hours can lead to faster wage growth, they are associated with worse work-life balance and greater stress levels. This is particularly relevant in the modern “always connected" society, where the ability to work from anywhere through smartphones and laptops might make it hard to define clear boundaries between work and non-work time. To address this, in 2017 the "right-to-disconnect" was introduced in France, whereby large employers must negotiate agreements with unions that include the right to not receive or not respond to employers' communications outside work hours. While potentially beneficial for workers' health, and in principle conducive to lower occupational segregation, the law might have unintended consequences, such as a decrease in productivity in the affected firms. In this project, we study the impact of the right to disconnect on workers and firms.