placestats

Hours worked (PWT) vs. Legal system and property rights (Fraser)

Holds up after adjusting for income

Across 125 countries, Hours worked (PWT) and Legal system and property rights (Fraser) rise and fall together at r = -0.55 (on a scale from −1 to +1, where 0 means no link). It holds up almost unchanged when only countries with similar income (GDP per person) are compared (r = -0.48, q = 0.017, allowing for the many pairs tested). Caution: direction is not consistent across regions.

Comparing countries across the middle half of legal system and property rights (Fraser), 4.54 to 6.87 points, hours worked (PWT) is 230 hours per year lower at the top of that range than the bottom. Comparing only countries with similar national income, the gap is 310 hours per year.

Link before adjusting (r)-0.550p = 3.1e-11 · 125 countries
After adjusting for national income-0.483p = 1.3e-8 · likely range [-0.61, -0.34]
p, allowing for regions0.006standard error 0.115 · 7 regions
Check for luck (q)0.017across 18,622 pairs

How to read these.r runs from −1 (one goes up as the other goes down) to +1 (they rise together), and 0 means no link. Adjusting for national income means comparing countries with the same GDP per person, so differences in wealth can’t explain the link. Income is used in percentage terms, since an extra $1,000 means more to a poor country than to a rich one. p is how likely a link this strong would be if there were really none. Below 0.05 means it is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 1.1e-32 means a decimal point followed by 31 zeros and then 11, so very close to zero. The likely range is where the true figure probably lies, and a range that crosses zero means the link could easily be chance. Countries in the same region tend to resemble each other, so the third figure allows for that, which gives a fairer p. The standard error is the typical size of the error in r. Finally, testing this many pairs means some will look strong by luck alone. A q below 0.05 means this link is unlikely to be one of those.

Hours worked (PWT) · hours per yearlink with income -0.40 · moderate
Legal system and property rights (Fraser) · rating (0-10)link with income +0.81 · proxy

“Link with income” is how closely each measure tracks GDP per person across countries, from −1 to +1.

Every country as a dot

Hours worked (PWT) · hours per year →Legal system and property rights (Fraser) · rating (0-10) →1,3352,6581.929.1Angola: 2,115 hours per year, 3.33 rating (0-10)Albania: 2,152 hours per year, 5.61 rating (0-10)United Arab Emirates: 2,514 hours per year, 7.09 rating (0-10)Argentina: 1,612 hours per year, 5.15 rating (0-10)Armenia: 1,976 hours per year, 5.86 rating (0-10)Australia: 1,611 hours per year, 8.69 rating (0-10)Austria: 1,438 hours per year, 8.46 rating (0-10)Azerbaijan: 1,791 hours per year, 5.09 rating (0-10)Belgium: 1,593 hours per year, 7.64 rating (0-10)Burkina Faso: 2,356 hours per year, 3.62 rating (0-10)Bangladesh: 2,383 hours per year, 2.9 rating (0-10)Bulgaria: 1,659 hours per year, 5.84 rating (0-10)Bahrain: 2,052 hours per year, 5.25 rating (0-10)Bosnia and Herzegovina: 2,122 hours per year, 4.59 rating (0-10)Belarus: 1,875 hours per year, 4.28 rating (0-10)Bolivia: 1,968 hours per year, 3.95 rating (0-10)Brazil: 1,994 hours per year, 5.34 rating (0-10)Botswana: 2,258 hours per year, 6.24 rating (0-10)Canada: 1,731 hours per year, 8.31 rating (0-10)Switzerland: 1,529 hours per year, 8.98 rating (0-10)Chile: 1,950 hours per year, 6.96 rating (0-10)China: 2,328 hours per year, 4.73 rating (0-10)Cote d'Ivoire: 2,103 hours per year, 5.13 rating (0-10)Cameroon: 2,181 hours per year, 2.86 rating (0-10)Congo, Dem. Rep.: 1,841 hours per year, 2.68 rating (0-10)Congo, Rep.: 2,534 hours per year, 3.1 rating (0-10)Colombia: 2,471 hours per year, 5.06 rating (0-10)Costa Rica: 2,177 hours per year, 6.62 rating (0-10)Cyprus: 1,840 hours per year, 6.7 rating (0-10)Czechia: 1,774 hours per year, 7.64 rating (0-10)Germany: 1,335 hours per year, 8.03 rating (0-10)Denmark: 1,380 hours per year, 9.09 rating (0-10)Dominican Republic: 2,072 hours per year, 5.29 rating (0-10)Algeria: 2,232 hours per year, 3.91 rating (0-10)Ecuador: 1,594 hours per year, 4.87 rating (0-10)Egypt, Arab Rep.: 2,369 hours per year, 3.36 rating (0-10)Spain: 1,638 hours per year, 7.36 rating (0-10)Estonia: 1,606 hours per year, 8.01 rating (0-10)Ethiopia: 1,599 hours per year, 4.25 rating (0-10)Finland: 1,497 hours per year, 8.88 rating (0-10)France: 1,487 hours per year, 7.41 rating (0-10)Gabon: 2,174 hours per year, 3.73 rating (0-10)United Kingdom: 1,523 hours per year, 7.92 rating (0-10)Georgia: 1,932 hours per year, 6.09 rating (0-10)Ghana: 1,656 hours per year, 5.25 rating (0-10)Greece: 1,893 hours per year, 6.22 rating (0-10)Guatemala: 2,151 hours per year, 4.78 rating (0-10)Hong Kong SAR, China: 2,240 hours per year, 7.57 rating (0-10)Croatia: 1,974 hours per year, 6.2 rating (0-10)Hungary: 1,668 hours per year, 6.69 rating (0-10)Indonesia: 1,958 hours per year, 4.54 rating (0-10)India: 2,383 hours per year, 5.28 rating (0-10)Ireland: 1,654 hours per year, 8.07 rating (0-10)Iran, Islamic Rep.: 2,246 hours per year, 3.4 rating (0-10)Iraq: 1,583 hours per year, 2.44 rating (0-10)Iceland: 1,452 hours per year, 8.81 rating (0-10)Israel: 1,890 hours per year, 6.14 rating (0-10)Italy: 1,701 hours per year, 6.74 rating (0-10)Jamaica: 1,963 hours per year, 5.83 rating (0-10)Jordan: 2,483 hours per year, 4.62 rating (0-10)Japan: 1,654 hours per year, 7.93 rating (0-10)Kazakhstan: 1,975 hours per year, 5.72 rating (0-10)Kenya: 2,035 hours per year, 4.73 rating (0-10)Kyrgyz Republic: 1,830 hours per year, 4.58 rating (0-10)Cambodia: 2,389 hours per year, 3.92 rating (0-10)Korea, Rep.: 1,910 hours per year, 6.81 rating (0-10)Kuwait: 2,318 hours per year, 5.25 rating (0-10)Lebanon: 2,412 hours per year, 3.59 rating (0-10)Sri Lanka: 2,053 hours per year, 5.12 rating (0-10)Lithuania: 1,640 hours per year, 7.67 rating (0-10)Luxembourg: 1,452 hours per year, 8.63 rating (0-10)Latvia: 1,625 hours per year, 7.61 rating (0-10)Morocco: 2,174 hours per year, 5.31 rating (0-10)Moldova: 1,989 hours per year, 5.77 rating (0-10)Madagascar: 1,799 hours per year, 3.08 rating (0-10)Mexico: 1,629 hours per year, 4.27 rating (0-10)North Macedonia: 1,949 hours per year, 4.72 rating (0-10)Mali: 2,243 hours per year, 3.53 rating (0-10)Malta: 1,848 hours per year, 6.89 rating (0-10)Myanmar: 2,197 hours per year, 3.27 rating (0-10)Mozambique: 1,507 hours per year, 4.7 rating (0-10)Mauritius: 1,990 hours per year, 6.87 rating (0-10)Malawi: 1,596 hours per year, 4.72 rating (0-10)Malaysia: 2,308 hours per year, 5.95 rating (0-10)Namibia: 2,184 hours per year, 5.93 rating (0-10)Niger: 2,069 hours per year, 3.62 rating (0-10)Nigeria: 2,062 hours per year, 3.63 rating (0-10)Netherlands: 1,439 hours per year, 8.56 rating (0-10)Norway: 1,412 hours per year, 9.05 rating (0-10)New Zealand: 1,708 hours per year, 9.1 rating (0-10)Oman: 2,266 hours per year, 5.7 rating (0-10)Pakistan: 2,471 hours per year, 3.74 rating (0-10)Peru: 2,143 hours per year, 5.19 rating (0-10)Philippines: 2,096 hours per year, 4.72 rating (0-10)Poland: 1,807 hours per year, 6.76 rating (0-10)Portugal: 1,735 hours per year, 7.41 rating (0-10)Paraguay: 2,123 hours per year, 4.47 rating (0-10)Qatar: 2,435 hours per year, 5.6 rating (0-10)Romania: 1,826 hours per year, 6.69 rating (0-10)Russian Federation: 2,087 hours per year, 4.86 rating (0-10)Rwanda: 1,584 hours per year, 6.07 rating (0-10)Saudi Arabia: 2,125 hours per year, 6.22 rating (0-10)Sudan: 2,658 hours per year, 1.92 rating (0-10)Senegal: 2,335 hours per year, 4.28 rating (0-10)Singapore: 2,283 hours per year, 8.47 rating (0-10)Serbia: 1,995 hours per year, 5.38 rating (0-10)Slovak Republic: 1,621 hours per year, 6.74 rating (0-10)Slovenia: 1,588 hours per year, 7.11 rating (0-10)Sweden: 1,432 hours per year, 8.3 rating (0-10)Syrian Arab Republic: 1,621 hours per year, 2.51 rating (0-10)Chad: 1,585 hours per year, 2.42 rating (0-10)Thailand: 2,177 hours per year, 5.37 rating (0-10)Tajikistan: 2,134 hours per year, 4.2 rating (0-10)Trinidad and Tobago: 1,610 hours per year, 5.18 rating (0-10)Tunisia: 2,288 hours per year, 4.54 rating (0-10)Turkiye: 1,747 hours per year, 4.91 rating (0-10)Tanzania: 2,129 hours per year, 5.11 rating (0-10)Uganda: 2,128 hours per year, 4.66 rating (0-10)Ukraine: 2,045 hours per year, 4.57 rating (0-10)Uruguay: 1,481 hours per year, 6.09 rating (0-10)United States: 1,789 hours per year, 7.88 rating (0-10)Viet Nam: 2,160 hours per year, 5.11 rating (0-10)South Africa: 2,181 hours per year, 5.72 rating (0-10)Zambia: 2,200 hours per year, 4.96 rating (0-10)Zimbabwe: 2,311 hours per year, 3.63 rating (0-10)AREBGDCOGDNKHKGIRQISLNORSDNSGPSYRTCD

best-fit line line after adjusting

Four ways to measure the link

MethodrpCountries
Standard (Pearson), not adjusted-0.5503.1e-11125
By rank (Spearman), not adjusted-0.5091.4e-9125
Standard (Pearson), adjusted for national income-0.4831.3e-8125
By rank (Spearman), adjusted for national income-0.3458.6e-5125

The rank version uses only each country’s place in line, from lowest to highest, so a few extreme countries count for less. The adjusted and unadjusted versions use the same 125 countries: those that report both measures and GDP per person. So the gap between them comes from the adjustment, not from a change in which countries are counted. Drop in the size of r after adjusting: +0.067 (a minus sign means it grew).

How solid is it?

Leaving out one country at a time, r ranges from -0.527 (without IRQ) to -0.460 (without MOZ). The bar above shows that range on a scale from −1 to +1, with the solid line at the full result. The single country that moves r most: IRQ (-0.044).

Fragile: this link may not hold up.
  • direction is not consistent across regions

Within each region

Countries are not separate, unrelated cases, and neighbors share a lot. A link that holds inside each region is far more believable than one that shows up only when comparing regions.

nr
East Asia & Pacific14-0.73
Europe & Central Asia45-0.68
Latin America & Caribbean15+0.28
Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan18+0.22
Sub-Saharan Africa28-0.45

By income third

If the link shows up only in the richest third of countries, it is a feature of rich countries, not a general pattern.

nr
Poorest third42-0.20
Middle third41-0.08
Richest third42-0.74

By largest religious group

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Christians74-0.55
Muslims34+0.17

By last European coloniser

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
France16+0.31
Never a European colony15-0.55
Spain14+0.33
United Kingdom35-0.38

By official ideology

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
Nationalist19+0.05
No strong official ideology85-0.58

By party system

Countries grouped by a label they share, such as main religion, rather than by a number. Groups of fewer than twelve countries are not shown. These groups differ in income, region and history all at once. So a gap between them is a place to start asking questions, not an answer.

nr
A few parties banned18-0.33
No parties banned93-0.40

Without outliers (countries far outside the middle half of countries on either measure, by more than one and a half times the width of that middle half): r = -0.483 after dropping 0 countries.

Two series, one country

Both measures over the years for one country you pick. The two charts are stacked so they share only the years along the bottom.

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Over time, within countries

Everything above compares countries with each other at one moment. This section compares each country only with itself over 34years. So a link here can’t come from anything about a country that stays the same, such as its history, geography, institutions or culture.

Within countries over time, there is no link that is clearly more than chance (r = +0.083, comparing each country only with itself over the years, and each year only with the same year elsewhere). Whatever the cross-country picture shows, countries whose hours worked (PWT) moved did not tend to see their legal system and property rights (Fraser) move with it.

Across countries (adjusted)-0.483for comparison
Within countries-0.044each country vs itself
…and vs the same year elsewhere+0.083q = 0.144 · 128 countries
Year-on-year changes+0.018q = 0.700
Read with care.
  • Almost all of this indicator's variation is between countries, not within them, so the within-country estimate rests on a small part of the data.

2,896 country-years (one country in one year), 128 countries, 1990–2023, about 23 years each on average. Share of the variation that happens within countries over time: 2% for Hours worked (PWT), 7% for Legal system and property rights (Fraser). The margins of error allow for each country appearing many times, and for each year’s value being close to the year before.

Year-to-year changes are a cautious test, not a final answer. Looking only at changes from one year to the next removes each country’s own trends. But it also makes measurement mistakes louder, which pulls the results toward zero. A near-zero result here is weak evidence of no link, not proof.

With one measure years behind the other

0.10−0.1-100+10years Legal system and property rights (Fraser) trails Hours worked (PWT) →lag -10: r = -0.021 (n = 1,986)lag -9: r = -0.004 (n = 2,055)lag -8: r = 0.007 (n = 2,183)lag -7: r = 0.027 (n = 2,311)lag -6: r = 0.043 (n = 2,439)lag -5: r = 0.047 (n = 2,566)lag -4: r = 0.056 (n = 2,625)lag -3: r = 0.059 (n = 2,693)lag -2: r = 0.068 (n = 2,761)lag -1: r = 0.078 (n = 2,829)lag +0: r = 0.083 (n = 2,896)lag +1: r = 0.091 (n = 2,900)lag +2: r = 0.084 (n = 2,839)lag +3: r = 0.077 (n = 2,778)lag +4: r = 0.075 (n = 2,717)lag +5: r = 0.067 (n = 2,656)lag +6: r = 0.072 (n = 2,532)lag +7: r = 0.069 (n = 2,461)lag +8: r = 0.065 (n = 2,389)lag +9: r = 0.076 (n = 2,316)lag +10: r = 0.092 (n = 2,243)

Same year (lag 0): +0.083. A peak away from zero does not show which comes first. These series change slowly — this year’s value is close to last year’s. That makes the curve smooth and nearly symmetric, whatever produced the data. Even a sharp peak at one lag (a gap of some years) would not prove that one measure changes the other.

This curve peaks at the edge of the window (lag +10), so it is still drifting where the search stops. That pattern usually reflects a slow trend left over in the data, not a link with real timing. The peak value should not be read as the “true” link at the right lag.

The data


hours per year
rating (0-10)		Years
Sudan SDN2,6581.922023, 2024
Congo, Rep. COG2,5343.12023, 2024
United Arab Emirates ARE2,5147.092023, 2024
Jordan JOR2,4834.622023, 2024
Pakistan PAK2,4713.742023, 2024
Colombia COL2,4715.062023, 2024
Qatar QAT2,4355.62023, 2024
Lebanon LBN2,4123.592023, 2024
Cambodia KHM2,3893.922023, 2024
Bangladesh BGD2,3832.92023, 2024
India IND2,3835.282023, 2024
Egypt, Arab Rep. EGY2,3693.362023, 2024
Burkina Faso BFA2,3563.622023, 2024
Senegal SEN2,3354.282023, 2024
China CHN2,3284.732023, 2024

Feenstra, Robert C., Robert Inklaar and Marcel P. Timmer (2015), "The Next Generation of the Penn World Table", American Economic Review, 105(10), 3150-3182, www.ggdc.net/pwt. Data: Penn World Table version 11.0, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, doi:10.34894/FABVLR.
Gwartney, J., Lawson, R., Murphy, R. and others, Economic Freedom of the World: 2026 Annual Report, Fraser Institute. Data from the EFW panel dataset (efotw-2026-master-index-data-for-researchers-iso.xlsx).

Sources

Hours worked (PWT)

Average annual hours worked per person engaged (Penn World Table)

Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen · via DataverseNL · CC BY 4.0 · updated irregular (new versions every few years)

Hours actually worked in a year, averaged over everyone with a job, including the self-employed and part-timers. It measures the same thing as the OECD hours measure, and for countries in both the two mostly agree. This one is kept because it reaches much further: about 130 countries each year from 2010 to 2023, where the OECD series has 38 countries and stops in 2016. Before 2000 it covers mainly rich countries. No "better" direction is set.

Legal system and property rights (Fraser)

Economic freedom, area 2, legal system and property rights (Fraser Institute)

Fraser Institute · No licence stated; used with citation · updated annual

Whether courts are independent and fair, contracts are enforced, property is protected and the police are reliable, from 0 to 10. It draws on some of the same expert sources as other rule-of-law measures, so expect it to track them closely.

How this was computed

Data used: most recent value in 2010-2025; values come from 2023–2024. To adjust for income, each measure is first predicted from GDP per person (in percentage terms, on a log scale) with a straight-line fit. Only what is left over is then compared. This is called a partial correlation. The line is drawn the standard way (ordinary least squares), which picks the line that comes closest to all the countries at once. The error margins allow for countries in the same region resembling each other, using 7 World Bank regions. The q-value corrects for testing all 18,622 pairs at once, using the Benjamini–Hochberg method. Underlying data last updated V-Dem v16; V-Party v2. How the country data works · explore Hours worked (PWT) and Legal system and property rights (Fraser)

This page shows that two measures go together. It does not show that Hours worked (PWT) changes Legal system and property rights (Fraser), or the reverse. These figures also describe countries, not individual people. See the ecological fallacy.

More links with Hours worked (PWT) or Legal system and property rights (Fraser)