The part-time work puzzle: could the relationship between self-reported health and part-time work solve the puzzle?

This paper tests if there is a relationship between self-reported health and part-time work. The empirical results are based on qualitative data of the LISS Panel (CentERdata Tilburg). Related literature of Becker and Akerlof formulated different hypothesis about the distribution of home work and market production. Booth and Van Ours (2008) tested these hypotheses with job-, work- and life satisfaction. They found a part-time work puzzle. Women with part-time jobs did not have a higher life satisfaction than full-time, so life satisfaction could not explain the choice of working part-time. The conclusion of this paper is twofold: for males, there is an ambiguous relationship between self-reported health and part-time work. For females, working part-time increases their health. Since females tend to be more alert with their health, the choice of the number of hours worked is influenced by its effect on her health. The results are an upper boundary of the real effect due to reverse positive causality.