Personally speaking, as a software developer, one of the major benefits of a job is the relaxed dress code and work hours.. I've put in my share of flat out, no sleep, caffeine driven work weeks, but I do appreciate being able to leave early when there is no work to be done..
Its nothing you can cite, of course, but I turned down a rather lucrative job offer when I graduated because the place operated under the draconian laws you mention, even to the extent of regulating the desktop wallpaper.. (the wallpaper, for heavens sake... that was *not* normal)
Ok, onto the official stuff, well, when I was at university, a bunch of business studies students did a measurement on programmer productivity.. They focused on the concept of "flexitime", so I trawled around the web a bit and found a few links.. unfortunately, I doubt the actual study is online... Another place to look would probably be in HRM (Human Resource Management texts)..
Disclaimer: I have no idea how respected the authors of the following articles are.. YMMV
Flexitime benefits
Flexitime study
A Google search on Flexitime is where I got these links from.. btw :o)
HTH
