Maternal employment and happiness: the effect of non-participation and part-time employment on mothers' life satisfaction

Arbeitspapier

In contrast to unemployment, the effect of non-participation and parttime employment on subjective well-being has much less frequently been the subject of economists' investigations. In Germany, many women with dependent children are involuntarily out of the labor force or in part-time employment because of family constraints (e.g., due to lack of available and appropriate childcare). Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) Study, this paper analyzes the impact of involuntary familyrelated non-participation and part-time employment on mothers' life satisfaction. Controlling for unobserved individual fixed effects, I find that both the pecuniary effects (foregone earnings) and the non-pecuniary effects (psychological costs) are significantly negative. Compensating income variations reveal that the residual household income would have to be raised by 182 percent (157 percent/77 percent) in order to just offset the negative effect of not being able to work because of family constraints (of being in short/long part-time employment). Moreover, in terms of overall happiness among mothers, non-participation is revealed to be a more serious problem than unemployment.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: DIW Discussion Papers ; No. 890

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; General Welfare; Well-Being ; Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure ; Time Allocation and Labor Supply
• Subject: Subjective well-being ; life satisfaction ; labor force participation ; part-time ; maternal employment ; work-family conflict ; Mütter ; Frauenerwerbstätigkeit ; Teilzeitarbeit ; Lebenszufriedenheit ; Familie ; Deutschland

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Berger, Eva M.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW)
• (where): Berlin
• (when): 2009

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/29813
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET