Does temporal and locational flexibility of work increase the labour supply of part-timers?

Abstract

In recent years many employees have gained more control over temporal and locational aspects of their work via a variety of flexible work arrangements, such as flexi-time and telehomework. This temporal and locational flexibility of work (TLF) is often seen as a means to combine work and private life and as such has been recommended as a policy to increase the labour supply part-time workers. To the best of our knowledge it has not been tested empirically yet, however, whether the presumed link between this type of worker-oriented flexibility and increasing working hours actually holds. We therefore analyse whether flexi-time and telehomework arrangements increase the number of actual, contracted and preferred working hours. Based on Dutch household panel data, our results indicate that the impact of TLF on working hours is quite limited. Telehomework is associated with moderate increases in actual hours, but not in contracted or preferred hours. Flexi-time generally seems to have an ambiguous effect on working hours. Despite positive effects of TLF on job satisfaction and working time fit, it does not seem to lead to an increase in labour supply.