Effect of Work–Life Balance Practices on Firm Productivity: Evidence from Japanese Firm-Level Panel Data

Isamu Yamamoto and Toshiyuki Matsuura

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 2014, vol. 14, issue 4, 1677-1708

Abstract: This article examines how firm practices that could contribute to worker attainment of work–life balance (WLB) affect the total factor productivity (TFP) of a firm, by using panel data of Japanese firms from the 1990s. We observed a positive correlation between the WLB practices and TFP among sampled firms. However that correlation vanished when we controlled for the unobserved firm heterogeneity, and we found no general causal relationship in which WLB practices increase firm TFP in the medium or long run. For firms with the following characteristics, however, we found positive and sizable effects: large firms, manufacturing firms, and firms that have exhibited labor hoarding during recessions. Since these firms are likely to incur large fixed employment costs, we infer that firms investing in firm-specific human skills or having large hiring/firing costs can benefit from WLB practices through a decrease in turnover or increase in recruiting effectiveness.

Keywords: work–life balance; TFP; fixed employment costs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 J24 J81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2013-0186 (text/html)
For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

Related works:
Working Paper: Effect of Work-Life Balance Practices on Firm Productivity: Evidence from Japanese firm-level panel data (2012)
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:bpj:bejeap:v:14:y:2014:i:4:p:32:n:14

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/bejeap/html

DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2013-0186

Access Statistics for this article

The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy is currently edited by Hendrik Jürges and Sandra Ludwig

More articles in The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy from De Gruyter
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().