Seminarios

(co-autores Monserrat Bustelo, Ana Maria Diaz, Claudia Piras, Luz Magdalena Salas, José Tessada)

Presenta: Jeanne Lafortune (Profesor Asociado y Directora de Investigación, Departamento de Economía, Universidad Católica de Chile)

.Abstract: We conducted a discrete choice experiment to elicit women’s revealed preferences regarding job schedule flexibility. We contrast preferences for flexible scheduling with that of part- time employment. We did so without deception by applying a methodology proposed by Kessler et al. (2019) for job seekers instead of employers. We find that women have a high willingness to pay for a flexible schedule within a full-time contract, but a much lower desire to trade wages for part-time contracts. This difference is not driven by inattention, although participants appeared to learn over the course of the experiment. We find that the willingness to pay for a flexible work arrangement is greatest for those with a higher family income, more educated women and those out of the labor force, which implies that flexibility is a luxury good. Demand for part-time employment is highest among those with children and older women, suggesting that these types of jobs may be more responsive to their time demands. Our estimates also reflect self-declared preferences and provide evidence that public policies that foster flexibility could lead to greater female labor force participation.

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