Helping with the Kids? How Family-Friendly Workplaces Affect Parental Well-Being and Behaviour

Abstract

Despite political efforts, balancing work and family life is still challenging. This paper provides novel evidence on the effect of firm level interventions that seek to reduce the work–life conflict. The focus is on how childcare support affects the well-being, working time, and caring behaviour of mothers with young children. Since the mid-2000s and pushed by public policies, in Germany an increasing number of employers have become proactive and implemented more family-friendly workplaces. These changes over time allow us to suggest causal effects using a difference-in-differences-matching approach. Based on a large panel data set, we find evidence pointing to welfare enhancing effects of childcare support. Mothers who are likely to be constrained in their allocation of time especially increase their working time and use formal care more intensively. The rise in satisfaction levels is more pronounced if mothers are more career-orientated.