Can Remote Work Narrow Gender Gaps in Greedy Jobs?

Emma Harrington and Matthew Kahn

AEA Papers and Proceedings, 2026, vol. 116, 218-222

Abstract: Women are underrepresented in highly paid "greedy jobs" (Goldin 2014). Could flexibility over where to work narrow this gender gap? Our evidence suggests yes. Using hypothetical choice data from Maestas et al. (2023a), we show that women view work from home (WFH) as more complementary with long hours than men do. The gender difference in WFH preferences is driven by people working over 40 hours per week. In these long-hour jobs, women are willing to forgo 15.9 percent of their pay for WFH, compared to 2.4 percent for men. Women also choose longer hours when they can WFH.

JEL-codes: J16 J22 J31 M12 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20261011 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/25193 (application/pdf)
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/25194 (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aea:apandp:v:116:y:2026:p:218-222

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/subscribe.html

DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20261011

Access Statistics for this article

AEA Papers and Proceedings is currently edited by William Johnson and Kelly Markel

More articles in AEA Papers and Proceedings from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().