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Jacobsen, Joyce P. --- "Accommodating Families" [2009] ELECD 413; in Dau-Schmidt, G. Kenneth; Harris, D. Seth; Lobel, Orly (eds), "Labor and Employment Law and Economics" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Labor and Employment Law and Economics

Editor(s): Dau-Schmidt, G. Kenneth; Harris, D. Seth; Lobel, Orly

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847207296

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Accommodating Families

Author(s): Jacobsen, Joyce P.

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

11 Accommodating families
Joyce P. Jacobsen


1 Introduction
One of the most significant workplace trends over the past quarter-century,
in both developed and developing countries, has been the increased number
of women in the workforce. This has led to increased attention and interest
regarding how work may be structured so as to accommodate both family
and worklife. While the difficulties that both dual-career families and
single-parent families (and even dual-parent, single-career families) face in
balancing work and family life are numerous and to a degree insurmount-
able, a number of initiatives at both the governmental and firm levels have
been instituted to try to ease this balancing act for families.
This chapter first covers the rationales for governmental and firm actions
on this front. It then focuses on the economic theory regarding the effects
such policies can have on various measurable outcomes, including perverse
effects that were not intended by policymakers. The next section describes
the main types of laws and firm-initiated policies that have been instituted
to date. The following section considers the empirical evidence regarding
what effects such laws and policies have had on measurable outcomes. The
conclusion considers directions for the future, including different types
of policy approaches that might mitigate some of the problems with the
existing menu of policy options.

2 Rationales for intervention
Why should governments and firms care about instituting `family-friendly'
policies? Such policies may be justified on multiple grounds, of which
economic grounds constitute only ...