Too Family Friendly? The Consequences of Parent Part-Time Working Rights

Daniel Fernández-Kranz () and Núria Rodriguez-Planas
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Daniel Fernández-Kranz: IE Business School, Madrid
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Daniel Fernandez Kranz

No 14548, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

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: compositional bias; fixed-term and permanent contract employment; female employment transitions and wages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C23 J16 J18 J62 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-eur, nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Published - published in: Journal of Public Economics , 2021, 197, 104407

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Journal Article: Too family friendly? The consequences of parent part-time working rights (2021)
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