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

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.