When Does Workplace Flexibility Help? Formal Care, Gender Norms, and Work–Care Trade-offs

Alice Chong (), Hiroyuki Motegi (), Masato Oikawa (), Takumi Toyono () and Haruko Noguchi ()
Additional contact information
Alice Chong: Graduate School of Economics, Waseda University, and Waseda Institute of Social & Human Capital Studies(WISH)
Hiroyuki Motegi: National Institute of Population and Social Security Research
Masato Oikawa: Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University, and Waseda Institute of Social & Human Capital Studies (WISH)
Takumi Toyono: Waseda Institute of Social & Human Capital Studies (WISH)
Haruko Noguchi: Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, and Waseda Institute of Social & Human Capital Studies (WISH)

No 2601, Working Papers from Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics

Abstract: We provide causal evidence on whether working from home (WFH) enables workers to balance employment and eldercare, and how formal care infrastructure and gender norms shape this relationship. Exploiting Japan’s COVID-19-induced remote work expansion, we find striking heterogeneity: WFH increases caregiving among part-time workers with positive health effects, but among full-time employees, only women increase caregiving — and their health deteriorates. Greater formal care availability and progressive gender norms substantially attenuate these effects. Realizing the work-care balance benefits of workplace flexibility requires complementary investments in care infrastructure and progress toward gender equality.

Keywords: working from home; informal caregiving; work-care balance; gender norms; long-term care; double burden; difference-in-differences (DID) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 J14 J20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2026-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma and nep-soc
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.waseda.jp/fpse/winpec/assets/uploads/2026/04/E2601.pdf First version (application/pdf)

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:wap:wpaper:2601

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Haruko Noguchi ().