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Field
Abstract
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Before
This randomized experiment with 1,500-2,000 households in and around Kolkata, India addresses two primary research questions: (1) How valuable are job attributes such as flexibility in location, hours, and multitasking in increasing FLFP?, and (2) What are the impacts of women starting part-time, at-home work, and to what degree can this type of work function as a stepping stone to full-time or outside-the-home employment? We will offer variations on internet-mediated gig jobs to women which are identical to each other except along one attribute and measure the impact of that attribute (e.g. the ability to work from home) on take up of work. Second, we implement these jobs over one month and estimate their effects on gender attitudes related to work and household roles, household members’ time use, and interest in future work opportunities. After the job intervention, we measure take up of assistance in starting further skills training and employment as an outcome to understand whether short-term, part-time, at-home work can act as a gateway to the broader labor market.
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After
This paper studies the effects of introducing flexible work arrangements on female labor force participation and gender norms. In a field experiment with 1,670 households, we test the impact of offering flexible jobs to women currently outside of the labor force. We find three sets of results. First, flexible work arrangements dramatically increase take up of work: the take up rate for the most flexible job is 228% higher than the take up rate of an office job (15%). Randomly varying specific dimensions of job flexibility shows that the ability to multitask work with childcare and to work from home are the deciding factors in labor supply for many women, particularly those from more traditional households. Second, work experience shifts the gender attitudes of women and their children to become less traditional, and experience with flexible jobs increases willingness to accept inflexible jobs after the intervention. Lastly, despite women’s increased labor supply under flexible work arrangements, employers may choose not to offer flexible jobs more frequently due to negative worker selection and negative effects on productivity.
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