IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp8304.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Flexible Working and Couples' Coordination of Time Schedules

Author

Listed:
  • Bryan, Mark L.

    (University of Sheffield)

  • Sevilla, Almudena

    (London School of Economics)

Abstract

Using previously unexploited data on time scheduling in the employment and household contexts, we investigate the effect of flexible working on couples' coordination of their daily work time schedules in the UK. We consider three distinct dimensions of flexible working: flexibility of daily start and finish times (flexitime), flexibility of work times over the year (annualised hours), and generalised control of working hours. We find that in couples with flexitime there is greater spouse synchronization in daily working times by nearly one hour. The effect is driven by couples with dependent children. However, we find the effect in couples with children of any age (under 16), suggesting it does not stem from the childcare requirements of young children. Robustness checks indicate that flexitime is not endogenous, suggesting that an expansion of flexitime would increase couples' work time coordination. There is less evidence that broader control over working hours increases daily synchronous working time and no evidence that annualised hours increase synchronous time on a daily basis. The weaker relationships with daily synchronous time for these two flexibility measures are consistent with their broader scope (control over amount of hours as well as timing) and longer time span.

Suggested Citation

  • Bryan, Mark L. & Sevilla, Almudena, 2014. "Flexible Working and Couples' Coordination of Time Schedules," IZA Discussion Papers 8304, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp8304
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp8304.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dickens, William T & Lundberg, Shelly J, 1993. "Hours Restrictions and Labor Supply," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 34(1), pages 169-192, February.
    2. Rachel Connelly & Jean Kimmel, 2011. "The Role of Non-standard Work Status in Parental Caregiving for Young Children," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 37(2), pages 248-269.
    3. Almudena Sevilla & Jose Gimenez-Nadal & Jonathan Gershuny, 2012. "Leisure Inequality in the United States: 1965–2003," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 939-964, August.
    4. Joseph G. Altonji & Christina H. Paxson, 1985. "Job Characteristics and Hours of Work," Working Papers 578, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    5. Benoît Rapoport & Céline Bourdais, 2008. "Parental time and working schedules," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 21(4), pages 903-932, October.
    6. Scheffel, Juliane, 2010. "Honey, I'll be working late tonight. The effect of individual work routines on leisure time synchronization of couples," SFB 649 Discussion Papers 2010-016, Humboldt University Berlin, Collaborative Research Center 649: Economic Risk.
    7. Birgitta Rabe, 2011. "Dual-earner migration. Earnings gains, employment and self-selection," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 477-497, April.
    8. René Böheim & Mark P. Taylor, 2004. "Actual and Preferred Working Hours," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 42(1), pages 149-166, March.
    9. Hallberg, Daniel, 2003. "Synchronous leisure, jointness and household labor supply," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 185-203, April.
    10. Mark L. Bryan, 2007. "Free to choose? Differences in the hours determination of constrained and unconstrained workers," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 59(2), pages 226-252, April.
    11. Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1999. "The Timing of Work over Time," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(452), pages 37-66, January.
    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. Martin Browning & Olivier Donni & Mette Gørtz, 2021. "Do you have time to take a walk together? Private and joint time within the household," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(635), pages 1051-1080.
    2. Sørensen, Jesper R.-V. & Fosgerau, Mogens, 2022. "How McFadden met Rockafellar and learned to do more with less," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    3. Arntz, Melanie & Ben Yahmed, Sarra & Berlingieri, Francesco, 2018. "Working from Home: Heterogenous Effects on Hours Worked and Wages," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181630, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    4. Liangshu Qi & Haojie Li & Lan Liu, 2017. "A note on Chinese couples’ time synchronization," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1249-1262, December.

    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. Mark L. Bryan & Almudena Sevilla, 2017. "Flexible working in the UK and its impact on couples’ time coordination," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1415-1437, December.
    2. Anne C. Gielen, 2009. "Working hours flexibility and older workers' labor supply," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 61(2), pages 240-274, April.
    3. Akay, Alpaslan & Bargain, Olivier & Jara Tamayo, H. Xavier, 2023. "Experienced versus decision utility: large-scale comparison for income-leisure preferences," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117746, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Richard Blundell & Mike Brewer & Marco Francesconi, 2008. "Job Changes and Hours Changes: Understanding the Path of Labor Supply Adjustment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 26(3), pages 421-453, July.
    5. Almudena Sevilla Sanz & Jose Ignacio GImenez Nadal, 2007. "A Note on Leisure Inequality in the US: 1965-2003," Economics Series Working Papers 374, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    6. Gimenez-Nadal, J. Ignacio & Molina, Jose Alberto, 2015. "Health status and the allocation of time: Cross-country evidence from Europe," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 188-203.
    7. Andrew Benito & Jumana Saleheen, 2013. "Labour Supply as a Buffer: Evidence from UK Households," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 80(320), pages 698-720, October.
    8. KURODA Sachiko & YAMAMOTO Isamu, 2011. "Firm's demand for work hours: Evidence from multi-country and matched firm-worker data," Discussion papers 11024, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    9. Michael C. Knaus & Steffen Otterbach, 2019. "Work Hour Mismatch And Job Mobility: Adjustment Channels And Resolution Rates," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(1), pages 227-242, January.
    10. Elisabetta Lazzaro & Carlofilippo Frateschi, 2017. "Couples’ arts participation: assessing individual and joint time use," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(1), pages 47-69, February.
    11. Almudena Sevilla & Jose Gimenez-Nadal & Jonathan Gershuny, 2012. "Leisure Inequality in the United States: 1965–2003," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 49(3), pages 939-964, August.
    12. Merz, Joachim & Osberg, Lars, 2006. "Keeping in Touch – A Benefit of Public Holidays," MPRA Paper 5738, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Daniel Borowczyk-Martins & Etienne Lalé, 2019. "Employment Adjustment and Part-Time Work: Lessons from the United States and the United Kingdom," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(1), pages 389-435, January.
    14. Paul, Annemarie, 2015. "After work shopping? Employment effects of a deregulation of shop opening hours in the German retail sector," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 329-353.
    15. Euwals, Rob, 1999. "Female Labour Supply, Flexibility of Working Hours, and Job Mobility in the Netherlands," IZA Discussion Papers 83, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Müller, Kai-Uwe & Neumann, Michael & Wrohlich, Katharina, 2018. "Labor Supply under Participation and Hours Constraints: An Extended Structural Model for Policy Evaluations," IZA Discussion Papers 12003, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Li, Jianghong & Kenyon Lair, Hannah & Schӓfer, Jakob & Kendall, Garth, 2022. "Parents' nonstandard work schedules and parents' perception of adolescent social and emotional wellbeing [Atypische Arbeitszeiten der Eltern und die Wahrnehmung des sozialen und emotionalen Wohlbef," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 782-801.
    18. Sam Cosaert & Alexandros Theloudis & Bertrand Verheyden, 2023. "Togetherness in the Household," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 529-579, February.
    19. Rebitzer, James B & Taylor, Lowell J, 1995. "Do Labor Markets Provide Enough Short-Hour Jobs? An Analysis of Work Hours and Work Incentives," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 33(2), pages 257-273, April.
    20. Nadia Steiber, 2008. ""How Many Hours Would you Want to Work a Week?": Job Quality and the Omitted Variables Bias in Labour Supply Models," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 121, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    time coordination; time synchronization; flexible work;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J32 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Nonwage Labor Costs and Benefits; Retirement Plans; Private Pensions

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:iza:izadps:dp8304. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.