IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wap/wpaper/2313.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Heterogeneous Impacts of Telework on Pregnancy and Birth Rates: Evidence from Longitudinal Data on Employment Dynamics in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • Alice Chong

    (Graduate School of Economics, Waseda University)

  • Haruko Noguchi

    (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University)

Abstract

Flexible working arrangements, such as telework, have the potential to serve as a mechanism for promoting female workforce participation and concurrently encouraging childbearing, particularly in rapidly aging societies. This study employs longitudinal data from the Japan Panel Study of Employment Dynamics (JPSED) to estimate the impact of being employed in an occupation characterized by a high proportion of teleworkers on the likelihood of women experiencing a birth or pregnancy within a given year. Employing a difference-in-differences framework in combination with fixed effects logistic regression, the study exploits the exogenous increase in occupations’ teleworker ratios driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings suggest that women in occupations with high teleworking ratios exhibit a 1.5 times increase in odds of being pregnant. While the results for the odds of giving birth are positive, they lack statistical significance. Furthermore, the treatment effects are heterogeneous, demonstrating more pronounced effects on women with higher levels of education, full-time employment, and abovemedian income. These results are reinforced with propensity score matching and random permutation tests. This study sheds light on the potential influence of telework on family planning decisions and underscores the importance of considering various demographic factors in understanding the nuanced effects of flexible working arrangements on fertility outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Alice Chong & Haruko Noguchi, 2024. "Heterogeneous Impacts of Telework on Pregnancy and Birth Rates: Evidence from Longitudinal Data on Employment Dynamics in Japan," Working Papers 2313, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wap:wpaper:2313
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.waseda.jp/fpse/winpec/assets/uploads/2024/04/891bb0a155ebe0d919bc31e4ec19206f.pdf
    File Function: First version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aude Bernard & Martin Bell & Elin Charles-Edwards, 2014. "Life-Course Transitions and the Age Profile of Internal Migration," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 40(2), pages 213-239, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Antoine Grandclement & Guilhem Boulay, 2021. "From The Uneven De-Diversification Of Local Financial Resources To Planning Policies: The Residentialization Hypothesis," Post-Print halshs-03322259, HAL.
    2. RÅ«ta UbareviÄ ienÄ— & Kadi Kalm & Maarten van Ham & Tautvydas Žinys & Jaak Kliimask & Tiit Tammaru, 2024. "Residential mobility and new forms of spatial inequality in the settlement system: A comparative study of Estonia and Lithuania," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 51(7), pages 1666-1688, September.
    3. Roselinde Wiel & Niels Kooiman & Clara H. Mulder, 2021. "Family Complexity and Parents’ Migration: The Role of Repartnering and Distance to Non-Resident Children," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 37(4), pages 877-907, November.
    4. Aude Bernard & Martin Bell, 2018. "Internal migration and education: A cross-national comparison," Papers 1812.08913, arXiv.org.
    5. Antoine Grandclement & Guilhem Boulay, 2021. "From the uneven de-diversification of local financial resources to planning policies: The residentialization hypothesis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1454-1472, September.
    6. L. B. Karachurina & N. V. Mkrtchyan & A. N. Petrosian, 2022. "Migration and Housing Construction in the Regional Capitals of Russia and Their Suburbs," Regional Research of Russia, Springer, vol. 12(3), pages 283-298, September.
    7. Robert Bozick, 2021. "Age, period, and cohort effects contributing to the Great American Migration Slowdown," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 45(42), pages 1269-1296.
    8. Giulia Bettin & Tineke Fokkema & Eralba Cela, 2018. "Return intentions over the life course: Evidence on the effects of life events from a longitudinal sample of first- and second-generation Turkish migrants in Germany," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(38), pages 1009-1038.
    9. Sen Li & Jianfa Shen, 2024. "Dynamics of Intercity Migration Propensity in China: Evidence from an Age-Period-Cohort Analysis," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(5), pages 1-24, October.
    10. Clara Mulder, 2018. "Putting family centre stage: Ties to nonresident family, internal migration, and immobility," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(43), pages 1151-1180.
    11. Bettina Hünteler & Clara H. Mulder, 2020. "Geographic Proximity to Parents, Intergenerational Support Exchange, and Migration Within Germany," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(5), pages 895-918, November.
    12. Steven RUGGLES & Robert McCAA & Matthew SOBEK & Lara CLEVELAND, 2015. "The IPUMS Collaboration : Integratin and Disseminating the World’s Population Microdata," JODE - Journal of Demographic Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(2), pages 203-216, June.
    13. Aude Bernard, 2017. "Cohort Measures of Internal Migration: Understanding Long-Term Trends," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2201-2221, December.
    14. Petra A. Jong & Aleid E. Brouwer & Philip McCann, 2016. "Moving up and down the urban hierarchy: age-articulated interregional migration flows in the Netherlands," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 145-164, July.
    15. repec:grz:wpsses:2021-07 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Sunganani V. Kalemba & Aude Bernard & Jonathan Corcoran & Elin Charles-Edwards, 2022. "Has the decline in the intensity of internal migration been accompanied by changes in reasons for migration?," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 39(3), pages 279-313, September.
    17. John Ermisch & Clara H. Mulder, 2019. "Migration Versus Immobility, and Ties to Parents," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 35(3), pages 587-608, July.
    18. Sigurd Dyrting, 2020. "Smoothing migration intensities with P-TOPALS," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(55), pages 1607-1650.
    19. Aude Bernard & Francisco Rowe & Martin Bell & Philipp Ueffing & Elin Charles-Edwards, 2017. "Comparing internal migration across the countries of Latin America: A multidimensional approach," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-24, March.
    20. Meriläinen, Marjut & Karhula, Aleksi & Kurvinen, Antti & Falkenbach, Heidi & Ala-Mantila, Sanna, 2024. "Transit-induced socioeconomic ascent and new metro stations in Helsinki Metropolitan Area: Distinct effects on renters, homeowners, and pre-existing housing dwellers," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    21. Jack Baker & David Swanson & Jeff Tayman, 2021. "The Accuracy of Hamilton–Perry Population Projections for Census Tracts in the United States," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(6), pages 1341-1354, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    telework; Japan; fertility; female LFP; family formation; difference-in-differences;
    All these keywords.

    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:wap:wpaper:2313. 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: Haruko Noguchi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/spwasjp.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.