Marina De Angelis (INAPP)
Thea Jansen
This paper examines whether remote work can reduce reliance on part-time employment a work arrangement predominantly used by women to balance work and family responsibilities but often associated with lower earnings, limited career prospects, and reduced pension benefits. Focusing on Italy, where female under-employment is particularly high, we investigate whether the flexibility offered by remote and hybrid work can serve as a substitute for part-time employment, enabling some necessity-driven part-time workers to transition to full-time contracts. Using a difference-in-differences framework and weighted logistic regression, we analyze panel and cross-sectional data from the National Institute for Public Policies Analysis (INAPP)s Participation, Labor, and Unemployment Survey (PLUS) for the 20182021 period. Our findings show that remote work significantly reduces the probability of working part-time in the following year, with women showing the highest increase in the likelihood of having a full-time contract.