The Partner Pay Gap – Associations between Spouses’ Relative Earnings and Life Satisfaction among Couples in the UK. ESRI WP642, November 2019

Despite women’s recent gains in education and employment, husbands still tend to out-earn their wives. This article examines the relationship between the partner pay gap, i.e. the difference in earned income between married, co-resident partners, and life satisfaction. Contrary to previous studies, we investigate the effects of recent changes in relative earnings within couples as well as labour market transitions. Using several waves of the UK Household Longitudinal Study, we reveal that men exhibit an increase in life satisfaction in response to a recent increase in their proportional earnings. For women their proportional earnings had no effect on life satisfaction in one model, and in a model that accounted for their recent employment changes, women exhibited decreased life satisfaction. We also find secondary-earning husbands report lower average life satisfaction than primary-earning men, while such differences were not found for women. The analysis offers compelling evidence of the role of gendered norms in the sustenance of the partner pay gap

Women between Part-Time and Full-Time Work: The Influence of Changing Hours of Work on Happiness and Life-Satisfaction

This paper asks whether 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.Temporary Employment, Unemployment, Health

Evaluating State Programmes - “Natural Experiments” and Propensity Scores

Evaluations of programmes — for example, labour market interventions such as employment schemes and training courses — usually involve comparison of the performance of a treatment group (recipients of the programme) with a control group (non-recipients) as regards some response (gaining employment, for example). But the ideal of randomisation of individuals to groups is rarely possible in the social sciences and there may be substantial differences between groups in the distributions of individual characteristics that can affect response. Past practice in economics has been to try to use multiple regression models to adjust away the differences in observed characteristics, while also testing for sample selection bias. The Propensity Score approach, which is widely applied in epidemiology and related fields, focuses on the idea that “matching” individuals in the groups should be compared. The appropriate matching measure is usually taken to be the prior probability of programme participation. This paper describes the key ideas of the Propensity Score method and illustrates its application by reanalysis of some Irish data on training courses.

Are fixed-term jobs bad for your health? : a comparison of West-Germany and Spain

"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, IAB-Doku) ((en))befristeter Arbeitsvertrag - Auswirkungen, Gesundheitszustand - internationaler Vergleich, Arbeitnehmer, geschlechtsspezifische Faktoren, Arbeitslose, Sozioökonomisches Panel, Europäisches Haushaltspanel, psychische Faktoren, Unsicherheit, Westdeutschland, Spanien, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Measuring the effect of institutional change on gender inequality in the labour market

This article examines the differential impact of labour market institutions on women and men. It carries out longitudinal analyses using repeat cross-sectional data from the EU Labour Force Survey 1992–2007 as well as time series data that measure institutional change over the same period. The results contribute to the literature on gendered employment, adding important insights into the impact of labour market institutions over and above family policies that have been the focus of most prior studies on the topic. We find differential effects of institutional change on male and female outcome. Our findings challenge the neo-classical literature on the topic. While our results suggest that men benefit more clearly than women from increases in employment protection, we do not find support for the neo-classical assertion that strong trade unions decrease female employment. Instead, increasing union strength is shown to have beneficial effects for both men's and women's likelihood of being employed on the standard employment contract. Furthermore, in line with other researchers, we find that rising levels of in kind state support to families improve women's employment opportunities

Are fixed-term jobs bad for your health? A comparison between Western Germany and Spain

In this paper we use panel data to analyse the health effects of fixed-term contract status on men and women in western Germany and Spain. This paper asks whether the changes in the employment relationship due to employment law liberalisation have altered the positive health effects associated with employment (Goldsmith et al. 1996; Jahoda 1982). Using contract type information on switching between unemployment and employment we analyse 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 western Germany, this was found to be a function of the dual burden of paid and unpaid care within the home

Are fixed-term jobs bad for your health? A comparison of West-Germany and Spain

"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)Der Beitrag analysiert die gesundheitlichen Auswirkungen befristeter Arbeitsverträge für Männer und Frauen in Westdeutschland und Spanien auf der Basis eines repräsentativen Datenpanels. Die Frage lautet, ob der Wandel der Beschäftigungsverhältnisse als Folge einer Liberalisierung der Arbeitsgesetzgebung Veränderungen der positiven gesundheitlichen Auswirkungen, die von einem Arbeitsverhältnis ausgehen (Goldsmith et al. 1996; Jahoda 1982) bewirken. Unter Nutzung von Informationen über Wechsel zwischen Arbeitslosigkeit und Beschäftigungsverhältnis je nach Art des Arbeitsvertrages wird analysiert, ob der Übergang in unterschiedliche Vertragsverhältnisse auch unterschiedliche gesundheitliche Auswirkungen hat. Es zeigt sich, dass für arbeitslose Arbeiter die Arbeitsaufnahme positive gesundheitliche Auswirkungen hat, sich dieser Effekt aber bei Arbeitern, die einen befristeten Job annehmen, verringert. Hinzukommen überraschende Unterschiede nach Geschlecht und Land, wobei Frauen in der Regel weniger über positive gesundheitliche Auswirkungen einer Arbeitsaufnahme berichten. Dieses Ergebnis fand für Westdeutschland seine Erklärung als Folge der Doppelbelastung von bezahlter Arbeit und unbezahlter Betreuungsarbeit im Haushalt. (IAB

Gesundheitliche Auswirkungen befristeter Verträge in Deutschland und Spanien

"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

Sacrificing their Careers for their Families? An Analysis of the Family Pay Penalty in Europe

This paper examines the extent of and the mechanisms behind the penalty to motherhood in six European countries. Each country provides different levels of support for maternal employment allowing us to determine institutional effects on labour market outcome. While mothers tend to earn less than non-mothers, the penalty to motherhood is considerably lower in countries with policy support for working mothers. The paper establishes the United Kingdom and West Germany to have the least policy support for working mothers as well as the largest penalties to motherhood

Wives’ part-time employment and marital stability in Great Britain, West Germany and the United States

Many hail wives’ part-time employment as a work—family balance strategy, but theories offer competing predictions as to the effects of wives’ employment on relationship stability. We use panel data to test these competing hypotheses among recent cohorts of first-married couples in Great Britain, West Germany 1 and the United States. We find effects of wives’ employment on marital stability var y across the countries. In West Germany with its high-quality part-time employment, couples where the wife works part time are significantly more stable. In the more liberal British and US labour markets, neither wives’ part- nor full-time employment significantly alters divorce risk. In the United States, however, mothers working part time have significantly lower divorce risk. West German and British husbands’ unemployment proves more detrimental to marital stability than wives’ employment. These results highlight the importance of the socioeconomic context in structuring the optimal employment participation of both partners