cite: Mun2018
author: Mun, E., & Jung, J.
year: 2018
title: "Policy generosity, employer heterogeneity, and women’s employment opportunities: The welfare state paradox reexamined"
publisher: American Sociological Review
uri: https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418772857
pubtype: article
discipline: sociology

country: Japan
period: 1992-2009
maxlength: 84
targeting: explicit
group: working mothers
data: Japan Company Handbook for Job Searchers

design: quasi-experimental
method: potential outcomes framework; fixed-effects analysis
sample: 600
unit: enterprise
representativeness: national
causal: 0 # 0 correlation / 1 causal

theory: welfare state paradox (over-representation of women in low-authority jobs in progressive welfare states)
limitations: limited generalizability with unique Japanese LM institutional features; limited ability to explain voluntary effects as lasting or as symbolic compliance and impression management
observation:
  - intervention: paid leave (childcare)
    institutional: 1
    structural: 0
    agency: 0
    inequality: gender
    type: 1 # 0 vertical / 1 horizontal
    indicator: 0 # 0 absolute / 1 relative
    measures: job quality
    findings: no change for promotions for firms not previously providing leave, positive promotion impact for firms already providing leave; incentive-based policies may lead to larger effects
    channels: voluntary compliance to maintain positive reputations
    direction: 1 # -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos
    significance: 1 # 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg
  - intervention: paid leave (childcare)
    institutional: 1
    structural: 0
    agency: 0
    inequality: gender
    type: 1 # 0 vertical / 1 horizontal
    indicator: 0 # 0 absolute / 1 relative
    measures: employment
    findings: no increase in hiring discrimination against women reflected as decreased employment probability
    channels: decreases may be due to supply-side mechanisms based on individual career planning and reinforced existing gender division of household labour
    direction: 0 # -1 neg / 0 none / 1 pos
    significance: 0 # 0 nsg / 1 msg / 2 sg

notes:
annotation: |
  A study on the effects of introductions of a variety of maternity leave laws in Japan on the employment numbers and job quality of women.
  Contrary to notions of demand-side mechanisms of the welfare state paradox, with women being less represented in high-authority employment positions due to hiring or workplace discrimination against them with increased maternity benefits,
  it finds that this is not the case for the Japanese labour market between 1992 and 2009.
  There were no increases in hiring discrimination against women, and either no significant change in promotions for firms not providing paid leave before the laws or instead a positive impact on promotions for firms that already provided paid leave.
  The authors suggest the additional promotions were primarily based on voluntary compliance of firms in order to maintain positive reputations, signaled through a larger positive response to incentive-based laws than for mandate-based ones.
  Additionally, the authors make the conjecture that the welfare paradox may rather be due to supply-side mechanisms, based on individual career planning, as well as reinforced along existing gender divisions of household labour which may increase alongside the laws.
  Limitations of the study include foremost its limited generalizability due to the unique Japanese institutional labour market structure (with many employments, for example, being within a single firm until retirement), as well as no ability yet to measure the true causes and effects of adhering to the voluntary incentive-based labour policies, with lasting effects or done as symbolic compliance efforts and mere impression management.