IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ilrrev/v62y2009i3p394-414.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Who Wants and Gets Flexibility? Changing Work Hours Preferences and Life Events

Author

Listed:
  • Robert Drago
  • Mark Wooden
  • David Black

Abstract

Using panel data for 2001–2005 from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, the authors examine workers' desires for, and achievement of, work hour flexibility. They estimate a dynamic model that controls for preferences in previous years and tests for the effects of life events on both desired employment and desired work hours. Many life events, such as motherhood and retirement, are found to have predictable effects. Parallel regressions are estimated for actual employment and the number of hours usually worked, and the results are compared to those for preferences. The dynamics of usual hours often mirror those for preferences, suggesting that labor markets function effectively for many employees. However, mismatches are associated with three life events: motherhood, widowhood for men, and job loss. The results also suggest that many men and women would extend employment under phased retirement programs, although only for a brief period.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert Drago & Mark Wooden & David Black, 2009. "Who Wants and Gets Flexibility? Changing Work Hours Preferences and Life Events," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 62(3), pages 394-414, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:62:y:2009:i:3:p:394-414
    DOI: 10.1177/001979390906200308
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001979390906200308
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/001979390906200308?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Joachim Merz, 2002. "Time and Economic Well–Being—A Panel Analysis of Desired versus Actual Working Hours," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 48(3), pages 317-346, September.
    2. Mark Wooden & Nicole Watson, 2007. "The HILDA Survey and its Contribution to Economic and Social Research (So Far)," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 83(261), pages 208-231, June.
    3. Sakiko Tanaka, 2005. "Parental leave and child health across OECD countries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(501), pages 7-28, February.
    4. Fischbach, Ruth L. & Herbert, Barbara, 1997. "Domestic violence and mental health: Correlates and conundrums within and across cultures," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 45(8), pages 1161-1176, October.
    5. Landers, Renee M & Rebitzer, James B & Taylor, Lowell J, 1996. "Rat Race Redux: Adverse Selection in the Determination of Work Hours in Law Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 329-348, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yang, Xiaolan & Huang, Yidong & Gao, Mei, 2022. "Can digital financial inclusion promote female entrepreneurship? Evidence and mechanisms," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    2. Huber, Martin & Lechner, Michael & Wunsch, Conny, 2013. "The Effect of Firms' Partial Retirement Policies on the Labour Market Outcomes of Their Employees," IZA Discussion Papers 7513, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Cahill, Kevin E. & McNamara, Tay K. & Pitt-Catsouphes, Marcie & Valcour, Monique, 2015. "Linking shifts in the national economy with changes in job satisfaction, employee engagement and work–life balance," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 40-54.
    4. Haysetta Doresa Shuler & Kimily Faulk & Barbara Hidleburg-Johnson & Demetrice Williams, 2016. "Engaging Diverse Generations in the 21st Century Workplace," International Journal of Business Research and Management (IJBRM), Computer Science Journals (CSC Journals), vol. 7(3), pages 31-39, July.
    5. Grund, Christian & Tilkes, Katja Rebecca, 2021. "Working Time Mismatch and Job Satisfaction - The Role of Employees' Time Autonomy and Gender," IZA Discussion Papers 14732, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Chad D. Cotti & M. Ryan Haley & Laurie A. Miller, 2014. "Workplace Flexibilities, Job Satisfaction and Union Membership in the US Workforce," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 403-425, September.
    7. Rowena A Pecchenino & Julie Byrne, 2017. "Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho:The Way We (Would Like to) Work Now," Economics Department Working Paper Series n282-17.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    8. Miranti, Riyana & Li, Jinjing, 2020. "Working hours mismatch, job strain and mental health among mature age workers in Australia," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    9. Julie Byrne & Rowena A. Pecchenino, 2019. "Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho: flexible labor contracts with real option characteristics," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 54(1), pages 25-34, January.
    10. Gustavo A. Caballero, 2017. "Responsibility or autonomy: children and the probability of self-employment in the USA," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 493-512, August.
    11. Genevieve Knight & Zhang Wei, 2015. "Isolating the Determinants of Temporary Agency Worker Use by Firms: An Analysis of Temporary Agency Workers in Australian Aged Care," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 18(2), pages 205-237.
    12. M. Ryan Haley & Laurie Miller, 2023. "Predicting preferences for flexible working arrangements in future employment: A gender analysis," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(2), pages 882-893.
    13. M. Haley & Laurie Miller, 2015. "Correlates of flexible working arrangements, stress, and sleep difficulties in the US workforce: does the flexibility of the flexibility matter?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1395-1418, June.
    14. Bellmann, Lutz & Hübler, Olaf, 2015. "Are Working Time Accounts Beneficial for German Establishments?," IZA Discussion Papers 9583, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert Drago & Mark Wooden & David Black, 2009. "Long Work Hours: Volunteers and Conscripts," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(3), pages 571-600, September.
    2. Masood Badri & Mugheer Al Khaili & Guang Yang & Muna Al Bahar & Asma Al Rashdi, 2022. "Examining the Structural Effect of Working Time on Well-Being: Evidence from Abu Dhabi," International Journal of Social Sciences, European Research Center, vol. 11(2), pages 24-44, September.
    3. Steffen Otterbach, 2010. "Mismatches Between Actual and Preferred Work Time: Empirical Evidence of Hours Constraints in 21 Countries," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 143-161, June.
    4. Weber, Enzo & Zimmert, Franziska, 2017. "The creation and resolution of working hour discrepancies over the life course," IAB-Discussion Paper 201729, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    5. Alison L. Booth, 2006. "The Glass Ceiling in Europe: Why Are Women Doing Badly in the Labour Market?," CEPR Discussion Papers 542, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    6. Hope Corman & Dhaval Dave & Nancy E. Reichman, 2018. "Evolution of the Infant Health Production Function," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(1), pages 6-47, July.
    7. Gordon B. Dahl & Katrine V. Løken & Magne Mogstad & Kari Vea Salvanes, 2016. "What Is the Case for Paid Maternity Leave?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(4), pages 655-670, October.
    8. Anger, Silke, 2005. "Unpaid Overtime in Germany: Differences between East and West," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 125(1), pages 17-27.
    9. Dora Gicheva, 2020. "Occupational Social Value and Returns to Long Hours," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(347), pages 682-712, July.
    10. Roger Wilkins & Markus Hahn, 2013. "Perceived Job Discrimination in Australia - Its Correlates and Consequences," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(1), pages 43-64.
    11. Lauber, Verena & Thomas, Lampert, 2014. "The Effect of Early Universal Daycare on Child Weight Problems," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100399, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    12. Mark E. Mcgovern, 2013. "Still Unequal at Birth: Birth Weight,Socio-economic Status and Outcomes at Age 9," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 44(1), pages 53-84.
    13. Samtleben, Claire & Bringmann, Julia & Bünning, Mareike & Hipp, Lena, 2019. "What Helps and What Hinders? Exploring the Role of Workplace Characteristics for Parental Leave Use and Its Career Consequences," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 8(10), pages 1-1.
    14. Micaela Bassford & Hayley Fisher, 2020. "The Impact of Paid Parental Leave on Fertility Intentions," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(315), pages 402-430, December.
    15. Della Giusta, Marina & Jewell, Sarah, 2021. "Working for Nothing: Personality and Time Allocation in the UK," IZA Discussion Papers 14971, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Ina Ganguli & Ricardo Hausmann & Martina Viarengo, 2021. "Gender Differences in Professional Career Dynamics: New Evidence from a Global Law Firm," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(349), pages 105-128, January.
    17. David Black & Cain Polidano & Yi-Ping Tseng, 2012. "The Re-engagement in Education of Early School Leavers," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 31(2), pages 202-215, June.
    18. Jeannie Annan & Christopher Blattman & Dyan Mazurana & Khristopher Carlson, 2009. "Women and Girls at War: Wives , Mothers, and Fighters in the Lord s Resistance Army," HiCN Working Papers 63, Households in Conflict Network.
    19. Wunder, Christoph, 2016. "Working hours mismatch and well-being: comparative evidence from Australian and German panel data," VfS Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145544, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    20. Adrian Chadi, 2019. "Dissatisfied with life or with being interviewed? Happiness and the motivation to participate in a survey," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 53(3), pages 519-553, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ilrrev:v:62:y:2009:i:3:p:394-414. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.