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His and her working hours and well-being in Germany: a longitudinal crossover-spillover analysis
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Abstract This paper investigates the relationship between work time arrangements and personal well-being in married and cohabiting couples. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey (SOEP), we study how the number of hours worked by the survey respondents and their partners influenced their own ... view more
This paper investigates the relationship between work time arrangements and personal well-being in married and cohabiting couples. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Survey (SOEP), we study how the number of hours worked by the survey respondents and their partners influenced their own well-being. We also investigate possible transmission mechanisms between the two variables, namely income, hours spent in homemaking and care activities, and possible mismatch between desired and actual hours. Using Hybrid panel models we find evidence of different relations according to the respondent's gender: Women report higher satisfaction with the increase of their partner’s working hours, while the opposite is true for men. At the same time, own hours have a positive effect on men’s life satisfaction, while they have the opposite effect for women. The presence of young children in the household further amplifies these results. Our conclusion is that respondents are happier when their and their partner’s behavior conforms to the roles of female homemaker and male breadwinner. Considering the absence of a strong mechanism related to time needs and time desires, we suggest those results are related to strong traditional attitudes towards gender roles and female labor force participation in the country considered.... view less
Keywords
well-being; working hours; gender-specific factors; married couple; partnership; work-life-balance; division of labor; housework; work-family balance; Federal Republic of Germany
Classification
Family Sociology, Sociology of Sexual Behavior
Free Keywords
Hybrid models; German Socio‐economic Panel Study (SOEP), 1985-2016 (version 34, 2019)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2020
Page/Pages
p. 249-273
Journal
JFR - Journal of Family Research, 32 (2020) 2
Issue topic
Parental work and family/child well-being
ISSN
2699-2337
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed