The Gendered Impact of Short-Time Work Arrangements: An Analysis of Germany and France during the Global Financial Crisis
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CAMILLE CUSIN | ACADEMIC SUBMISSION
The Graduate Inequality Review, Volume II (July 2023) |
Abstract: When the Global Financial Crisis struck, Germany expanded its long-established short-time work programme (Kurzarbeit) to safeguard employment and allow firms to retain skilled workers through the economic downturn. This measure was lauded throughout Europe for its economic effectiveness, but short-time work arrangements have rarely been explored from a genderperspective. This is surprising, given that the existing literature on women’s employment during crises bears ambiguouspredictions regarding such job protection and work-sharing policies. This paper examines the gendered impact that the Kurzarbeit, in congruence with the crisis, had on employment in Germany, as opposed to France where no such internal adjustments were conducted. It uses data collected by the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) before and after the change to conduct higher-order difference-in-differences models comparing the evolution in weekly working hours between men and women in Germany and France. The research finds that the crisis and subsequent introduction of Kurzarbeit in Germany had an immediate adverse effect on the difference in working hours between men and women. When examining the economy at the sectoral level, this effect is found to reflect ‘core’/‘buffer’ dynamics but does not seem to stem from job segregation between men and women. Motivated by the research lacuna, this study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between labour market policies and women’s employment during recessions in a comparative perspective. It highlights that apparently-neutral labour market social policies are implemented in the context of a gendered labour market which leads to a differentiated application in practice. |
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