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Prof Rudolf's study, published online in Springer's Journal of Happiness Studies, is the first of its kind to assess the impact of such an external reduction of working hours on the subjective well-being of individuals and families.

It was based on a longitudinal survey of urban Korean households, the Korean Labour and Income Panel Study, conducted between 1998 and 2008.

He discovered that working wives and mothers were generally happier with reforms than their male partners.

This is because women face higher work-family role conflicts within the traditional Korean society, and thus suffer more from long overtime hours.

But even though full-time workers, and women in particular, are generally thankful that their work week was cut by four hours on average, it has had no significant impact on their overall job and life satisfaction because much of the positive spin-offs gained from fewer working hours are often offset by rising work intensity demands set by employers, while some firms tend to gave less holiday time.

Prof Rudolf said that these findings show either that traditional theory is wrong to suggest that longer working hours alone have a negative impact on the personal happiness of employees, or it means that increased work intensity, because of cuts in official working hours, completely offsets any positive effects such a move might have.

Prof Rudollf said: "If the latter holds true, it would be naïve to believe that work time reductions alone can increase worker well-being."

Edited for Telegraph.co.uk by Katie Grant