Part-time jobs: what women want?

Publication type

Journal Article

Authors

Publication date

June 1, 2013

Summary:

Part-time jobs are common among partnered women in many countries. There
are two opposing views on the efficiency implications of so many women
working part-time. The negative view is that part-time jobs imply
wastage of resources and underutilization of investments in human
capital since many part-time working women are highly educated. The
positive view is that, without the existence of part-time jobs, female
labor force participation would be substantially lower since women
confronted with the choice between a full-time job and zero working
hours would opt for the latter. In the Netherlands, the majority of
partnered working women have a part-time job. Our paper investigates,
from a supply-side perspective, if the current situation of abundant
part-time work in the Netherlands is likely to be a transitional phase
that will culminate in many women working full-time. Our main results
indicate that partnered women in part-time work have high levels of job
satisfaction, a low
desire to change their working hours, and live in partnerships in
which household production is highly gendered. Taken together, our
results suggest that part-time jobs are what most Dutch women want.

Published in

Journal of Population Economics

Volume and page numbers

Volume: 26 , p.263 -283

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00148-012-0417-9

ISSN

9331433

Subjects

Notes

Open Access article

#521102

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