Working from home: Heterogeneous effects on hours worked and wages

Melanie Arntz, Sarra Ben Yahmed () and Francesco Berlingieri

No 19-015, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: Working from home (WfH) has become much more common since the early 2000s. We exploit the German Socio-Economic Panel between 1997 and 2014 to investigate how such a work arrangement affects labour market outcomes and life satisfaction. We find that childless employees work an extra hour per week of unpaid overtime and report higher satisfaction after taking up WfH. Among parents, WfH reduces the gender gap in working hours and monthly earnings, as contractual hours increase more among mothers. Hourly wages, however, increase with WfH take-up among fathers, but not among mothers unless they change employer. This points to poorer bargaining outcomes for women compared to men when staying with the same employer. Controlling for selection into paid employment due to changes in unobserved characteristics or preferences does not affect the magnitude of the effects.

Keywords: working from home; working hours; wages; gender; flexible work arrangements. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J2 J31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-gen, nep-hrm and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Working from Home: Heterogenous Effects on Hours Worked and Wages (2018)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:19015

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