On September 16th, a session of the ISEG Research Seminars will take place from 13.00 to 14.00. The guest speaker will be Esmée Zwiers from the University of Amsterdam. This session will take place in Amphitheater 4 (Quelhas Building, 4th floor).
The ISEG Research Seminars are held every week on Wednesdays, with the participation of professors from ISEG, as well as from other Portuguese and international educational institutions.
Title: Part-Time Work and the Transformation of Female Labor Supply: Evidence from the Netherlands (Co-authored with Kyra Hanemaaijer)
Abstract: Female labor force participation rose sharply across advanced economies in the 20th century, but we know little about the role of part-time work in this rise. We show that in the Netherlands—a country with both high female labor force participation and the highest prevalence of part-time work in the OECD—this increase is almost entirely a part-time phenomenon. By combining several historical labor market data sources spanning nearly 50 years, we track women’s labor market attachment and occupational choices over time. A shift-share decomposition shows that the increase is driven by married, low-educated women entering the labor force, rather than by shifts in marriage or educational attainment. We then assess potential explanations for this shift, including sorting into part-time-friendly sectors, changing social norms surrounding maternal employment, and labor market policies that encourage female employment.
