Impact of Teleworking on Childcare Time During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Owner-Occupied Housing
To prevent further virus transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic, several countries imposed stay-at-home restrictions to refrain people from going out. This exogenously encouraged many workers and companies to adopt telework. This study discusses the relationship between teleworking and childcare participation, considering the housing environment. Data from the Japan Household Panel Survey and its supplementary modules on COVID-19, conducted in 2020, were utilized. After controlling for individual and household attributes, regions, and housing characteristics, we found that male workers who telework in large-sized, owner-occupied housing significantly increased their childcare hours. For the male teleworkers living in owner-occupied detached housing, if telework time per day increases by an hour, childcare time per day will increase by 0.16 hours. This is an increase of approximately 17% in childcare time per day, relative to the sample average for the male subset. This suggests that sufficient space and quality of housing may have a substantial effect on time devoted to childcare by men.
