Rise in Home Working and Spousal Labor Supply

Mylène Feuillade, Dominique Goux () and Eric Maurin
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Mylène Feuillade: Paris School of Economics
Dominique Goux: CREST-INSEE

No 17997, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This article explores how an employee’s choice to work from home (WFH) influences his or her spouse’s outcomes. Drawing on the specific features of the French institutions, we show that a spouse’s switch to WFH leads to a sharp increase in the probability that his or her partner will also switch to WFH, as well as in the number of hours worked by the partner. These cross-effects are particularly strong on the better-paid partner within the couple (whether the man or the woman) who appears to condition his or her decision to work from home on that of his or her (less-paid) partner. The effects of WFH on the volume of hours worked are greatly underestimated when spillovers within couples are neglected. On the other hand, we detect no significant effect on partners’ commuting distance, nor on the type of urban unit they choose to live in.

Keywords: hours worked; social interactions; work from home (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-07
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