DP10930 Gender and the Effect of Working Hours on Firm-Sponsored Training

Author(s):	Matteo Picchio, Jan C. van Ours
Publication Date:	November 2015
Keyword(s):	firm-sponsored training, Gender, Human capital, part-time employment, working hours
JEL(s):	C33, C35, J24, M51, M53
Programme Areas:	Labour Economics
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=10930

Using employees' longitudinal data, we study the effect of working hours on the propensity of firms to sponsor training of their employees. We show that, whereas male part-time workers are less likely to receive training than male full-timers, part-time working women are as likely to receive training as full-time working women. Although we cannot rule out gender-working time specific monopsony power, we speculate that the gender-specific effect of working hours on training has to do with gender-specific stereotyping. In the Netherlands, for women it is common to work part-time. More than half of the prime age female employees work part-time. Therefore, because of social norms, men working part-time could send a different signal to their employer than women working part-time. This might generate a different propensity of firms to sponsor training of male part-timers than female part-timers.