Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/45978 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 5280
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We show that task juggling, i.e., the spreading of effort across too many active projects, decreases the performance of workers, raising the chances of low throughput, long duration of projects and exploding backlogs. Individual speed of job completion cannot be explained only in terms of effort, ability and experience: work scheduling is a crucial input that cannot be omitted from the production function of individual workers. We provide a simple theoretical model to study the effects of increased task juggling on the duration of projects. Using a sample of Italian judges we show that those who are induced for exogenous reasons to work in a more parallel fashion on many trials at the same time, take longer to complete similar portfolios of cases. The exogenous variation that identifies this causal effect is constructed exploiting the lottery that assigns cases to judges together with the procedural prescription requiring judges to hold the first hearing of a case no later than 60 days from filing.
Subjects: 
individual production function
work scheduling
duration of trials
JEL: 
J0
K0
M5
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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