This paper asks whether moving to part‐time work makes women happy. Previous research on labour supply has assumed that as workers freely choose their optimal working hours on the basis of their innate preferences and the hourly wage rate, outcome reflects preference. This paper tests this assumption by measuring the impact of changes in working hours on life satisfaction in two countries (the UK and Germany using the German Socio‐Economic Panel and the British Household Panel Survey). We find decreases in working hours bring about positive and significant improvement on well‐being for women.
Abstract Continuous training participation over the career becomes ever more important. However, most existing research mainly analyzed training at single points in time. This article investigates training dynamics and hence asks the question of whether training begets training. We provide two contributions to the literature: First, we analyze if previous training participation has an effect on later participation, leading to strict cumulative advantages. Second, by comparing Germany and the United Kingdom, we aim to explore whether these processes differ between countries with divergent skill formation systems. Using dynamic random effects probit models, which control for time-constant unobserved factors, and panel data (NEPS and UKHLS), we find that the accumulation of training experiences is mainly determined by initial education as well as job and firm characteristics. Still, previous participation plays a secondary yet noteworthy role, signifying dynamic growth in both countries, with higher effects for the United Kingdom. Thus, we show that only considering worker, job, and firm characteristics when analyzing inequality in training participation neglects a significant further mechanism that is rooted in previous training participation. We come to three main conclusions: (i) There is a potential amplification of early inequalities over time. Individuals who are initially on career paths that promote regular training participation are likely to keep and even enhance their advantage over time. (ii) On the other hand, our results also suggest the potential for individuals to break free from non-participation patterns. (iii) The inequality-generating pathways can be influenced by institutions.
This paper explores earnings inequalities within dual-earner couples in East and West Germany drawing on household-level panel data from 1992 to 2016. It has three aims: (1) to analyze how the partner pay gap (the pay gap between partners within one household) has developed over time, given institutional change, and whether the extent of inequality and temporal development vary between East and West Germany; (2) to explore variation in the partner pay gap by male partners' absolute earnings; and (3) to investigate the micro-level determinants of earnings inequalities within couples and determine whether their relevance varies between East and West Germany as well as by male partners' absolute earnings. We find women earn substantially less than their partners, and our regression results find no indication of a declining partner pay gap. Besides substantial variation between East and West Germany, our results also reveal important group-specific variation in the extent of the partner pay gap as well as in its determinants.
This study examines how within-couple inequalities, that is power differences between men and women in a partnership, act as predictors of transitions from full-time to part-time employment applying Heckman corrected probit models in three different institutional and cultural contexts; Eastern Germany, Western Germany and the United Kingdom. The analyses show that when women are in a weaker position within their relationships they are more likely to drop-out of full-time work, but that this propensity varies by context. The authors also find an increased tendency over time for women to leave full-time for part-time employment in both Eastern and Western Germany, but observe no such trend in the UK. This is suggestive of ongoing incompatibilities in the institutional support for equality in dual-earning in Germany. The study uses longitudinal data covering the period 1992 until 2012 from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) for Germany and from the British Household Panel (BHPS) and the 'Understanding Society' data for the UK.
In: Die Natur der Gesellschaft: Verhandlungen des 33. Kongresses der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Soziologie in Kassel 2006. Teilbd. 1 u. 2, S. 4418-4428
"Die negativen psychischen und physischen Auswirkungen der Arbeitslosigkeit sind in der Literatur hinreichend bekannt. Mit der seit längerem fortschreitenden Flexibilisierung des Arbeitsmarktes - beispielsweise durch die hier untersuchten befristeten Verträge - ergeben sich jedoch neue Fragen. Sind beim Verlassen der Arbeitslosigkeit über einen befristeten Vertrag die gleichen positiven gesundheitlichen Wirkungen zu beobachten wie typischerweise beim Wechsel in ein unbefristetes Beschäftigungsverhältnis? Sind eventuell zu beobachtende Effekte dauerhaft und vor allem gibt es Länderspezifika? Unterschiedliche Auswirkungen könnten beispielsweise auf die Häufigkeit der Vergabe befristeter Verträge zurückzuführen sein. Aus diesem Grunde vergleichen die Verfasserinnen Deutschland (wo die Anteile befristeter Verträge nur relativ langsam steigen) mit Spanien (wo inzwischen rund ein Drittel aller Beschäftigten befristet beschäftigt ist). Die Zusammenhänge zwischen Vertragsart und Gesundheit in diesen beiden Ländern werden mit Hilfe des Sozioökonomischen Panels und des European Community Household Panels untersucht. Auf Basis eines Samples von Arbeitslosen wird hierbei analysiert, welche gesundheitlichen Effekte sich beim Verlassen der Arbeitslosigkeit in die verschiedenen Vertragsformen hinein ergeben. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen folgendes: Verlassen Arbeitslose die Arbeitslosigkeit über ein befristetes Beschäftigungsverhältnis, so sind die positiven gesundheitlichen Effekte tendenziell kleiner sind als beim Abgang in einen unbefristeten Vertrag. Darüber hinaus gibt es überraschende Unterschiede zwischen den beiden Ländern und insbesondere den Geschlechtern: Frauen berichten in viel geringerem Umfang als Männer, dass die Arbeitsaufnahme ihren Gesundheitszustand verbessert hat. In Deutschland scheint die Ursache hierfür insbesondere die doppelte Belastung aus beruflichen und familiären Verpflichtungen zu sein." (Autorenreferat)
"In this paper we analyse the health effects of fixed-term contract status for men and women in West-Germany and Spain using panel data. This paper asks whether changes in the employment relationship, as a result of the liberalisation of employment law, have altered the positive health effects associated with employment (Goldsmith et al. 1996; Jahoda 1982). Using information on switches between unemployment and employment by contract type we analyze whether transitions to different contracts have different health effects. We find that unemployed workers show positive health effects at job acquisition, and also find the positive effect to be smaller for workers who obtain a fixed-term job. We also establish surprising differences by gender and country, with women less likely to report positive health effects at job acquisition. For West-Germany, this was found to be a function of the dual-burden of paid and unpaid care within the home." (author's abstract)