Effect of Work-Family Balance Policy on Job Selection and Social Sustainability: The Case of South Korea

Wang-Jin Yoo and Inha Oh ()
Additional contact information
Wang-Jin Yoo: Department of Industrial Engineering, Konkuk University, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul 143-701, Korea

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-15

Abstract: South Korea needs to actively implement work-family balance policies to increase both the low employment rate of women and the low total fertility rate. This study analyzes the quantitative benefits that the implementation of work-family balance policies provides to employees and employers. We conducted a choice experiment that asked 633 participants about their stated preferences for a hypothetical company with different work-family balance practices. The analysis was performed by using a hierarchical Bayesian model that considered preference heterogeneity according to the respondents’ characteristics. The results indicate that the availability of parental leave provides benefits equivalent to an increase of 5.80 million won in annual salary and that offering childcare in the workplace has an effect equivalent to an increase of 5.37 million won in annual salary. Further, low-income groups, women, the younger generation, and parents of preschool children are most sensitive to the policy. Finally, small and medium-sized enterprises are less desirable to work for than large companies, but the implementation of work-family balance policies could change this preference.

Keywords: work-family balance policy; South Korea; job selection; choice experiment; hierarchical Bayesian model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/849/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/5/849/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:5:p:849-:d:99056

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().