Can Work from Home Help Balance the Parental Division of Labor?

Hans-Martin von Gaudecker, Lenard Holler (), Radost Holler () and Christian Zimpelmann
Additional contact information
Lenard Holler: Scientific Staff of the German Council of Economic Experts
Radost Holler: University of Bonn

No 321, ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series from University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany

Abstract: Remote work expanded persistently after the Covid-19 pandemic. We study whether this increased job flexibility reduced within-household specialization in the Netherlands, where the pandemic’s childcare demand spike was transitory, isolating remote work’s effect. Using time-use and administrative data from 2016–2023 and a difference-in-differences design exploiting pre-pandemic remote work potential, we find each additional hour of potential raised parental childcare by about 10 minutes. As fathers have higher potential, the childcare gender gap narrowed by one-third. Mothers also increased market work when fathers could work from home. Thus, remote work can promote more equitable household labor division.

Keywords: Job flexibility; remote work; childcare; division of labor; time-use data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J16 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 23 pages
Date: 2024-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_321_2024.pdf Second version, 2026 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Can Work from Home Help Balance the Parental Division of Labor? (2025)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:321

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