Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/298586 
Year of Publication: 
2024
Series/Report no.: 
CEBI Working Paper Series No. 03/24
Publisher: 
University of Copenhagen, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI), Copenhagen
Abstract: 
I study the impact of changes in the family-friendliness of jobs on occupational choice across gender in the labor market for physicians. I utilize a Danish working hour reform from 1981, which imposed a maximum 40-hour workweek for junior hospital physicians. To do so, I digitize archival data and combine it with administrative data. I find that the reform affected some specialties more than others, with the least flexible (acute) specialties being the most affected. I exploit these differing treatment intensities across specialties in order to estimate the impact of family-friendly hours constraints on specialty choice across gender in a dose-response difference-in-differences design. My results suggest that the fraction of females in a specialty increased more where introduction of a 40-hour workweek had more bite. In addition, I find that female fertility increased more in highly affected specialties. I do not find similar effects for males. My results suggest that preferences for working hours are important for occupational choice across gender and hence gender inequality in wages.
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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