Working from Home: Heterogeneous Effects on Hours Worked and Wages

47 Pages Posted: 7 May 2019

See all articles by Melanie Arntz

Melanie Arntz

IAB Nuremberg; Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nuremberg

Ben Yahmed Sarra

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Francesco Berlingieri

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research - Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy Department

Date Written: 2019

Abstract

Working from home (WfH) has become much more common since the early 2000s. We exploit the German Socio-Economic Panel between 1997 and 2014 to investigate how such a work arrangement affects labour market outcomes and life satisfaction. We find that childless employees work an extra hour per week of unpaid overtime and report higher satisfaction after taking up WfH. Among parents, WfH reduces the gender gap in working hours and monthly earnings, as contractual hours increase more among mothers. Hourly wages, however, increase with WfH take-up among fathers, but not among mothers unless they change employer. This points to poorer bargaining outcomes for women compared to men when staying with the same employer. Controlling for selection into paid employment due to changes in unobserved characteristics or preferences does not affect the magnitude of the effects.

Keywords: working from home, working hours, wages, gender, flexible work arrangements

JEL Classification: J2, J31, O33

Suggested Citation

Arntz, Melanie and Sarra, Ben Yahmed and Berlingieri, Francesco, Working from Home: Heterogeneous Effects on Hours Worked and Wages (2019). ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 19-015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3383408 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3383408

Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen Nuremberg ( email )

Erlangen-Nuremberg
Germany

Ben Yahmed Sarra

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1
D-68034 Mannheim, 68034
Germany

Francesco Berlingieri

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research - Labour Markets, Human Resources and Social Policy Department ( email )

P.O.Box 10 34 43
D-68034
Germany

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
1,709
Abstract Views
6,036
Rank
22,337
PlumX Metrics