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IZA Discussion Paper No. 17997
July 2025
Rise in Home Working and Spousal Labor Supply
Mylène Feuillade, Dominique Goux, Eric Maurin

This article explores how an employee’s choice to work from home (WFH) influences his or her spouse’s outcomes. Drawing on the specific features of the French institutions, we show that a spouse’s switch to WFH leads to a sharp increase in the probability that his or her partner will also switch to WFH, as well as in the number of hours worked by the partner. These cross-effects are particularly strong on the better-paid partner within the couple (whether the man or the woman) who appears to condition his or her decision to work from home on that of his or her (less-paid) partner. The effects of WFH on the volume of hours worked are greatly underestimated when spillovers within couples are neglected. On the other hand, we detect no significant effect on partners’ commuting distance, nor on the type of urban unit they choose to live in.

Communications
Mark Fallak
mark.fallak@liser.lu
+352 585-855-526
World of Labour
Olga Nottmeyer
olga.nottmeyer@liser.lu
+352 585-855-501
Network Coordination
Christina Gathmann
christina.gathmann@liser.lu

The IZA@LISER Network is a global community of scholars dedicated to excellence in labor economics and related fields, now coordinated at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) following its transition from Bonn.

About IZA@LISER Network
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