Drivers of Working Hours and Household Income Dynamics during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of the Netherlands

Christian Zimpelmann, Hans-Martin von Gaudecker, Radost Holler, Lena Janys and Bettina Siflinger ()
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Bettina Siflinger: Department of Economics, University of Bonn, Adenauerallee 24-42, 53113 Bonn, Germany

No 93, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: Using customized panel data spanning the entire year of 2020, we analyze the dynamics of working hours and household income across different stages of the CoVid-19 pandemic. Similar to many other countries, during this period the Netherlands experienced a quick spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, adopted a set of fairly strict social distancing measures, gradually reopened, and imposed another lockdown to contain the second wave. We show that socio-economic status is strongly related to changes in working hours, especially when strict economic restrictions are in place. In contrast, household income is equally unaffected for all socio-economic groups. Examining the drivers of these observations, we find that pandemic-specific job characteristics (the ability to work from home and essential worker status) explain most of the socio-economic gradient in total working hours. Furthermore, household income is largely decoupled from shocks to working hours for employees. We provide suggestive evidence that large-scale labor hoarding schemes have helped insure employees against demand shocks to their employees.

Keywords: inequality; labor market; working from home; coronavirus; essential workers; mitigation policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 J21 J22 J24 J33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2021-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eur, nep-hrm and nep-lma
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_093_2021.pdf First version, 2021 (application/pdf)

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Working Paper: Drivers of Working Hours and Household Income Dynamics during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of the Netherlands (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:093

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