The determinants of lateness: Evidence from British workers

Using a sample of male and female workers from the 1992 Employment in Britain survey, we estimate a generalised grouped zero-inflated Poisson regression model of employees' self-reported lateness. Lateness is higher for males, private sector workers and in service industries. Reflecting theoretical predictions from both psychology and economics, we model lateness as a function of incentives, the monitoring of, and sanctions for, lateness within the workplace, job satisfaction and attitudes to work. Various aspects of workplace incentive and disciplinary policies turn out to affect lateness; however, controlling for these, an important role for job satisfaction remains. © Scottish Economic Society 2005.