Part-time jobs: what women want?

Alison Booth and Jan van Ours

Journal of Population Economics, 2013, vol. 26, issue 1, 263-283

Abstract: Part-time jobs are common among partnered women in many countries. There are two opposing views on the efficiency implications of so many women working part-time. The negative view is that part-time jobs imply wastage of resources and underutilization of investments in human capital since many part-time working women are highly educated. The positive view is that, without the existence of part-time jobs, female labor force participation would be substantially lower since women confronted with the choice between a full-time job and zero working hours would opt for the latter. In the Netherlands, the majority of partnered working women have a part-time job. Our paper investigates, from a supply-side perspective, if the current situation of abundant part-time work in the Netherlands is likely to be a transitional phase that will culminate in many women working full-time. Our main results indicate that partnered women in part-time work have high levels of job satisfaction, a low desire to change their working hours, and live in partnerships in which household production is highly gendered. Taken together, our results suggest that part-time jobs are what most Dutch women want. Copyright The Author(s) 2013

Keywords: Part-time work; Happiness; Satisfaction; Working hours; Gender; J22; I31; J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (64)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Part-Time Jobs: What Women Want? (2010)
Working Paper: Part-Time Jobs: What Women Want? (2010)
Working Paper: Part-time Jobs: What Women Want? (2010)
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DOI: 10.1007/s00148-012-0417-9

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