IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wap/wpaper/2601.html

When Does Workplace Flexibility Help? Formal Care, Gender Norms, and Work–Care Trade-offs

Author

Listed:
  • Alice Chong

    (Graduate School of Economics, Waseda University, and Waseda Institute of Social & Human Capital Studies(WISH))

  • Hiroyuki Motegi

    (National Institute of Population and Social Security Research)

  • Masato Oikawa

    (Faculty of Education and Integrated Arts and Sciences, Waseda University, and Waseda Institute of Social & Human Capital Studies (WISH))

  • Takumi Toyono

    (Waseda Institute of Social & Human Capital Studies (WISH))

  • Haruko Noguchi

    (Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, and Waseda Institute of Social & Human Capital Studies (WISH))

Abstract

We provide causal evidence on whether working from home (WFH) enables workers to balance employment and eldercare, and how formal care infrastructure and gender norms shape this relationship. Exploiting Japan’s COVID-19-induced remote work expansion, we find striking heterogeneity: WFH increases caregiving among part-time workers with positive health effects, but among full-time employees, only women increase caregiving — and their health deteriorates. Greater formal care availability and progressive gender norms substantially attenuate these effects. Realizing the work-care balance benefits of workplace flexibility requires complementary investments in care infrastructure and progress toward gender equality.

Suggested Citation

  • Alice Chong & Hiroyuki Motegi & Masato Oikawa & Takumi Toyono & Haruko Noguchi, 2026. "When Does Workplace Flexibility Help? Formal Care, Gender Norms, and Work–Care Trade-offs," Working Papers 2601, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wap:wpaper:2601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.waseda.jp/fpse/winpec/assets/uploads/2026/04/E2601.pdf
    File Function: First version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • I10 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - General
    • J14 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of the Elderly; Economics of the Handicapped; Non-Labor Market Discrimination
    • J20 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wap:wpaper:2601. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Haruko Noguchi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/spwasjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.