Topics in Applied Labour Economics

This thesis contributes to applied labour economics, spanning gender and spousal partnership. The first chapter shows that partnered women who work more hours than their spouse report lower life satisfaction. The data, collected from a sample of Australian women, suggest that this decrease in well-being is primarily interpreted as women’s non-compliance with traditional gender roles. This effect is more prevalent among women with less education, older women, and women living in regions with more traditional values. However, a decomposition analysis reveals that the impact of these well-being losses on female labour supply is minor and only plays a supplementary role in explaining the slow convergence of gender in the labour market.The second chapter investigates the wage dynamics of partners with similar careers by analysing a sample of Australian couples using a quasi-experimental design. The findings suggest that women experience significant positive wage effects when they have an occupational association with their partner, while men do not see significant effects. These positive wage effects are particularly pronounced among women who work part-time while their partner works full-time and among women whose partner switches into their occupation. These effects are also stronger for partners with a university degree, and partners' wages increase progressively with the number of years they remain work-related.The third chapter examines the effect of flexible working time arrangements on the gender gap in working hours among women using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). The study finds that flexibility has a positive impact on reducing the gender gap in hours worked among women who choose flexible contracts, especially among full-time working women and women after childbirth. These results indicate that flexibility allows women to better balance work and family responsibilities during periods of increased family duties and highlights the importance of flexible working time arrangements in promoting gender equality in employment.