Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements

Mas, Alexandre; Pallais, Amanda

doi:10.1257/aer.20161500

Cited by 580 publications

(320 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…At the federal level, lawmakers debated whether or how the government should encourage flexible work arrangements (Council of Economic Advisers, 2015). These debates centered on extending policies on overtime in the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family Medical Leave Act (Mas & Pallais, 2017) but have not resulted in any modifications to existing legislation. Congress also responded by introducing the Flexibility for Working Families Act in 2013 and the Schedules that Work Act in 2017.…”

Section: Flexible Work Arrangementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

One step forward? Advances and setbacks on the path toward gender equality in families and work

Thébaud

Halcomb

2019

Sociology Compass

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Men and women increasingly express egalitarian preferences for organizing family life, but workplace norms and practices are still based on relatively traditional assumptions about the gender division of labor in families. In this article, we unpack this discordant feature of the cultural landscape with recent sociological research on gender, work, and family. We begin by discussing the growing body of evidence on preferences for gender–egalitarian relationships and specify how these egalitarian desires are incongruous with workplace norms and practices. Such a mismatch between desires and reality tends to produce negative personal and career outcomes, including work–family conflict, stress, and job and marital dissatisfaction. Then, we offer a critical review of the recent actions taken by some employers and policymakers to address this issue. We observe some progressive changes in both the public and private sector in regard to family leave policies, flexible work arrangements, childcare support, and fertility benefits, but these policy initiatives still fall short of supporting gender–egalitarian arrangements for working families. We conclude with a discussion of how researchers could better evaluate and increase the effectiveness of workplace initiatives.

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Section: Flexible Work Arrangementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

One step forward? Advances and setbacks on the path toward gender equality in families and work

Thébaud

Halcomb

2019

Sociology Compass

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“…We find that whilst entering solo self-employment leads to lower earnings than employee jobs -as much of the recent literature suggests -individuals also experience an improvement in well-being. This provides an alternative perspective to the value of solo self-employment, in terms of psychological benefits that compensate for lower earnings, that complements recent work using studies of willingness to pay to elicit the value of alternative work arrangements (Boeri et al, 2020;Datta, 2019;Mas and Pallais, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Going solo: how starting solo self-employment affects incomes and well-being

Mel¹,

Munshi²,

Reiche³

et al. 2020

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Using a large-scale panel data set, we trace the evolution of incomes and well-being around the entry into 'solo self-employment'-that is, running a business without employees. We find that solo selfemployment is used to self-insure against employment shocks: employment rates fall and poverty rates rise in the run-up to entry, and many who fell out of employment report being dismissed or made redundant from their previous job. However, their average earnings do not fully recover within three years of entry. For those who move into solo self-employment directly from employee jobs, for whom this transition is more likely to have been voluntary, earnings remain lower and poverty rates higher for at least two years after entry. Despite the effect on incomes, becoming solo self-employed is associated with improvements in well-being across a number of measures. We see a large and sustained rise in job satisfaction, even among groups who are likely to be using solo self-employment to self-insure. Comparing entries into solo self-employment with entries into or moves between employee jobs, we find that well-being trajectories are remarkably similar despite significantly lower earnings in solo selfemployment. This suggests that there may be intangible benefits that compensate for lower earnings, that (on average) apply even to those who are 'pushed' into solo self-employment.

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“…With a wider labor pool to pick from, employers could potentially push the wage rate from WFH labor lower. As Mas & Pallais (2017) found, an average worker is willing to give up 8 percent of wages for WFH. This percentage could be much higher facing a pandemic health threat and high unemployment.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…(1) through (4) using daily data presented in Table 3 (Mas & Pallais 2017) and better control of their schedules, but also better health with limited exposure to virus or bacteria; on the other hand, workers without digital skills or digital access often conduct relatively low-paid jobs, remain a life demanded by their bosses' schedules, and more importantly, always at the front line to be exposed to any transmutable disease, virus, germs. Dingel & Neiman (2020)'s contribution on teleworkable jobs offered the timely and critical contribution in the pandemic.…”

Section: Robustness Checkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small Business and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Work from Home

Zhang¹,

Gerlowski²,

Ács³

2020

Preprint

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While work from home (WFH) becomes the new norm in the COVID-19 pandemic and while small businesses could be more vulnerable in crisis, whether the WFH norm will fade after the stay-at-home mandate ended and whether WFH could be a Schumpeterian “creative” force that helps small businesses do well in the pandemic is unknown. The study first builds a theoretical framework based on marginal revenue product cost utility theory subject to a “contagion” agglomeration parameter and argues that WFH is a rational choice for businesses. Then, we compiled from multiple data sources an up-to-date real-time daily and weekly multifaceted data set tracking WFH propensity from March 20 through July 28. Our empirical analysis estimated a variety of fixed-effects panel data models, population-averaged generalized linear panel-data models with the generalized estimating equation (GEE) approach, and two-level mixed-effects panel-data models. After controlling for the local pandemic, economic, and demographic factors, we find (1) after the stay-at-home order ended, WFH rate got higher; (2) small businesses in states with higher WFH rate are more likely to have higher increases in operating revenue, better cash flow and lower chances of temporary closure. Our robust empirics confirm our theories and hypotheses and demonstrate WFH as a potential force that expedited the “creative destruction” into a new efficient work paradigm.

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Valuing Alternative Work Arrangements

Cited by 580 publications

References 46 publications

One step forward? Advances and setbacks on the path toward gender equality in families and work

One step forward? Advances and setbacks on the path toward gender equality in families and work

Going solo: how starting solo self-employment affects incomes and well-being

Small Business and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Work from Home

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