Too family friendly? The consequences of parent part-time working rights

Daniel Fernández-Kranz and Núria Rodriguez-Planas
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Daniel Fernandez Kranz

Journal of Public Economics, 2021, vol. 197, issue C

Abstract: We use a difference-in-differences model with individual fixed effects to evaluate a 1999 Spanish law granting employment protection to workers with children younger than 6 who had asked for a shorter workweek due to family responsibilities. Our analysis shows that well-intended policies can potentially backfire and aggravate labor market inequalities between men and women, since there is a very gendered take-up, with only women typically requesting part-time work. After the law was enacted, employers were 49% less likely to hire women of childbearing age, 40% more likely to separate from them, and 37% less likely to promote them to permanent contracts, increasing female non-employment by 4% to 8% relative to men of similar age. The results are similar using older women unaffected by the law as a comparison group. Moreover, the law penalized all women of childbearing age, even those who did not have children. These effects were largest in low-skill jobs, at firms with less than 10 employees, and in industries with few part-time workers. These findings are robust to several sensitivity analyses and placebo tests.

Keywords: Female employment transitions and wages; Compositional bias; Fixed-term and permanent contract employment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 J16 J18 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:197:y:2021:i:c:s0047272721000438

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2021.104407

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