Do Brazilians Work Less Than They Should?

Abstract

A widely reported claim in the Brazilian media holds that Brazilians work substantially fewer hours than expected given their income level. Using data from Gethin and Saez (2025) covering 160 countries, I show that this conclusion is an artifact of the econometric specification. Brazil's residual changes sign depending on the functional form, the weighting method, and, most importantly, the inclusion of institutional controls—taxation, informality, and working-time regulation. When these controls are added, Brazil shifts to working more than expected, both in the cross-section and in a panel setting (1988–2023). The hypothesis that the deviation reflects a "cultural preference for leisure" is tested using microdata from the World Values Survey for 58 countries and rejected: the variable that directly measures it—willingness to prioritize work over leisure—becomes insignificant conditional on institutions.