Women's employment around birth of the first child in Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and Japan

This Paper analyses the effect of family policies on mothers employment around the birth of the first child in the 1980s and the 1990s. In order to examine the policy effect, I present more detail on and compare family policies in Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and Japan as these countries provide us with policies that significantly differ in extent and thus (potential) effect. Of these five countries, only Sweden has had equal roles for fathers and mothers as the prime guiding principle for its family policies since the 1970s. More recent policy changes have moved Britain, Germany, The Netherlands and Japan in this direction, but the emphasis differed across these countries. The aim of this Paper is to evaluate the effect of specifically designed family policies on employment of mothers around their first childbirth. I use household panel data sets from Britain (BHPS, 1991-1998), Germany (GSOEP, 1984-1998), The Netherlands (OSA, 1985-1998), Sweden (HUS, 1984-1998) and Japan (JPSC, 1993-1997). First, I graphically illustrate monthly employment status around childbirth of women who gave birth to the first child in the 1980s and 1990s (yearly employment status is analysed for Japan). Then, I proceed by estimating multinomial logit models for the employment choice for the five years after the first childbirth. I distinguish between the following three choices: full-time employment, part-time employment and not being employed. The results of the econometric analyses are in line with the (actual) development in the 1980s and the 1990s of the policy environment in each of these five countries. As such, estimation results lend support to the hypothesis that specifically designed family policies succeed in affecting decisions on work of first-time mothers

Work Life Balance in the Netherlands: Flexible working hours and a flexible working place (Japanese)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of Dutch approach to achieving Work Life Balance (WLB) and to draw policy implications for Japan. It is argued that flexibility of working hours and flexibility offered at one's working place are essential elements of WLB. In this respect, the Netherlands has attained relatively advanced policies and practices. For instance, workers in the Netherlands enjoy a strong degree of flexibility in terms of working hours, a system that strives to bring actual working hours close to desired working hours. Furthermore, the country is currently seeking to increase flexibility for workers in the choice of their place of work through the promotion of telework. First, this paper first positions the Netherlands in a cross-country comparison with other advanced countries—Japan, France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States —that have adopted different approaches to the labour market and related public policies. Second, the paper presents a theoretical discussion on the flexibility of working hours. Third, it focuses on three important aspects of WLB in the Netherlands, namely, part-time work, family-friendly policies, and telework. Finally, the paper considers WLB policies and work-style practices in the Netherlands based on a hearing survey of four major private-sector companies.

Employment Choices and Pay Differences between Non-Standard and Standard Work in Britain, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden

This paper analyses two questions. First, how do otherwise similar people across four countries end up in fourdifferent employment states: 1) full-time with a regular contract, 2) part-time with a regular contract, 3) fixedterm contract full-time or part-time and 4) self-employed? Second, how do wages differ between otherwise similarpeople between work arrangements in each of the four countries in our analysis? We employ the 1998 wave ofhousehold panel data sets namely BHPS for Britain, GSOEP for Germany, OSA for the Netherlands and HUS for Sweden.The reason for analysing and comparing four countries is an interest in policies that may result in differentchoices for otherwise similar people.Our multinomial analyses show that the probability of working part time, both for men and women in the Netherlandsis much higher other things equal than for men and women in the other three countries. Similarly the probabilityof being self employed for men in Sweden is much higher than in the other three countries. In Germany, fixed-termworkers are conspicuously badly paid compared to fixed-term workers in the other three countries. Furthermorewe find part-time workers relatively better paid in Sweden and the Netherlands than in Britain and Germany

Working Hours and Satisfaction: A comparative analysis of Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany (Japanese)

We investigate the relationship between working hours and working-hour satisfaction and that between working hours and life satisfaction for white-collar permanent employees in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany. We use data obtained from the International Survey on Work-Life Balance , which was conducted by the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) and the Economic and Social Research Institute, Cabinet Office (ESRI) in Japan. The survey shows that Japan has the highest proportion of workers with long weekly working hours. Also, the unconditional average of both working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction in Japan is lower than that of the UK, and Germany. We estimate ordered probit models with working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction as dependent variables. Estimation results show that with other things being equal, working-hour satisfaction decreases as weekly working hours increase in all three countries. Results for life satisfaction reveal similar patterns, although the impact of weekly working hours is smaller than in the case of working-hour satisfaction. We also calculate predictions on the basis of our estimation results in which we control for personal, occupational and other characteristics. The prediction results show that the conditional average of working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction is not necessarily lower in Japan than in the UK or Germany, unlike what the unconditional results suggest. Phrased differently, working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction for Japanese workers is not below the satisfaction levels of British and German workers that have the same characteristics. This difference in the conditional and unconditional results can be attributed to the fact that many more Japanese workers have characteristics that are connected with lower satisfaction levels. Our results thus suggest that it would be possible to increase working-hour satisfaction and life satisfaction in Japan if the institutional factors that currently bring people lower satisfaction can be altered. For instance, additional flexibility geared towards bringing actual working hours closer to desired working hours could prove worthwhile in increasing satisfaction levels.

Women’s Fertility and Employment Decisions Under Two Political Systems – Comparing East and West Germany Before Reunification

Over the last decades fertility rates have decreased in most developed countries, while female labour force participation has increased strongly over the same time period. To shed light on the relationship between women's fertility and employment decisions, we analyse their transitions to the first, second, and third child as well as their employment discontinuities following childbirth. Using new longitudinal datasets that cover the work and family life of women in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the German Democratic Republic (GDR) allows for taking into account two political regimes and drawing conclusions about the relevance of institutional factors for fertility and employment decisions. Our results suggest that in both parts of Germany women's probability of having a first child is negatively correlated with both employment and educational achievement. Regarding second and third birth risks, this negative correlation weakens. Analysing women's time spent out of the labour market following childbirth we find that in the East almost all mothers return to work within 18 months after birth. In the West, however, this proportion is much smaller and at the age when the child starts nursery school or school, women re-enter the labour market at higher rates. These results point to a strong influence of institutional circumstances, specifically the extent of public daycare provision. A multivariate analysis reveals a strong correlation between a woman's employment status prior to birth and her probability of re-entering the labour market afterwards

Women's employment around birth of the first child in Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and Japan

This Paper analyses the effect of family policies on mother's employment around the birth of the first child in the 1980s and the 1990s. In order to examine the policy effect, I present more detail on and compare family policies in Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden and Japan as these countries provide us with policies that significantly differ in extent and thus (potential) effect. Of these five countries, only Sweden has had equal roles for fathers and mothers as the prime guiding principle for its family policies since the 1970s. More recent policy changes have moved Britain, Germany, The Netherlands and Japan in this direction, but the emphasis differed across these countries. The aim of this Paper is to evaluate the effect of specifically designed family policies on employment of mothers around their first childbirth. I use household panel data sets from Britain (BHPS, 1991-1998), Germany (GSOEP, 1984-1998), The Netherlands (OSA, 1985-1998), Sweden (HUS, 1984-1998) and Japan (JPSC, 1993-1997). First, I graphically illustrate monthly employment status around childbirth of women who gave birth to the first child in the 1980s and 1990s (yearly employment status is analysed for Japan). Then, I proceed by estimating multinomial logit models for the employment choice for the five years after the first childbirth. I distinguish between the following three choices: full-time employment, part-time employment and not being employed. The results of the econometric analyses are in line with the (actual) development in the 1980s and the 1990s of the policy environment in each of these five countries. As such, estimation results lend support to the hypothesis that specifically designed family policies succeed in affecting decisions on work of first-time mothers.

Does Part-Time and Intermittent Work during Early Motherhood Lead to Regular Work Later? A Comparison of Labor Market Behavior of Mothers with Young Children in Germany, Britain, The Netherlands, and Sweden

Abstract We use data from Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden to examine whether part-time and intermittent work during early motherhood leads to regular full-time work later. We find that in Sweden, by the time the first child is four years old 80 percent of mothers are working full-time if 25 hours is counted as full-time work, but only 30 percent if a 35-hour threshold is used. This finding contrasts sharply with the work patterns in early motherhood in the other three countries and we interpret it as an effect of woman friendly public policies. Furthermore, while employment of mothers is concentrated in the public sector in all four countries, it is relatively less concentrated there in Sweden. Our results emphasize the importance of labor force transitions of women around the early stages of maternity in explaining cross-sectional findings on women's employment