Working Papers

The WNE Working Papers series has been published by the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw since 2008.

The WNE Working Papers series provides a fast, open channel for disseminating research conducted at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw. The papers hosted here are working versions (pre-prints) and may evolve as authors refine their analyses, incorporate feedback, or progress through formal peer-review. What you read is the current version released by the authors, timestamped and assigned DOI/ISSN identifiers to ensure precise citation and version tracking. Copyright remains with the authors, who may, at any time, upload a revised file or add a note directing readers to a later, peer-reviewed publication.

The Working Papers series accepts articles by research employees of the Faculty and publications from conferences organised at the Faculty of Economic Sciences at the University of Warsaw. Articles should be original research papers which have not been previously published, on the subject of economics.

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(2) the title page including: the title of the paper, the authors and their affiliation (DOC/DOCX file).

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Number of Results 2

WP(34/2026)528. Job Stressors, Self-Reported Stress, and Childbearing Decisions: A Longitudinal Study of Working Women in Germany

Authors: Luo Chen, Jarosz Ewa, Matysiak Anna
Occupational stressors are linked to workers' subjective stress and major life decisions, such as job change, but their role in fertility transitions is unclear. This study examines whether objective occupational stressors and self-reported stres…

WP528. Job Stressors, Self-Reported Stress, and Childbearing Decisions: A Longitudinal Study of Working Women in Germany

Occupational stressors are linked to workers' subjective stress and major life decisions, such as job change, but their role in fertility transitions is unclear. This study examines whether objective occupational stressors and self-reported stress jointly shape childbearing among employed women in Germany. We test two competing hypotheses: women either exit taxing jobs by redirecting resources to family life, or preserve occupational resources by delaying or foregoing childbirth. We combine occupation-level stressor measures from the German BIBB/BAuA Employment Survey with data on 4,205 women from the 2011–2021 German Family Panel (Pairfam). Mixed-effects logistic regression models are applied by parity and adjusted for confounders. Among mothers, high stressors and self-reported stress were linked to a higher likelihood of pregnancy, supporting the exit hypothesis. Among childless women, associations were weaker and limited to psychosocial stressors. The stress-fertility link depends on women's subjective stress appraisal and parity, not only on objective job characteristics.


DOI: https://doi.org/10.33138/2957-0506.2026.34.528
Luo Chen, Jarosz Ewa, Matysiak Anna
fertility work-life balance job exposure matrix self-reported stress

WP(29/2023)436. WP 29(436) Work from home and perceived changes to work-life balance among mothers and fathers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Authors: Kurowska Anna, Kasperska Agnieszka, Kaufman Gayle
Better access to work from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic offered parents the possibility to accommodate increasing childcare needs, but at the same time it led to an unprecedented scale of workers performing paid and care work  si…

WP436. WP 29(436) Work from home and perceived changes to work-life balance among mothers and fathers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Better access to work from home (WFH) during the COVID-19 pandemic offered parents the possibility to accommodate increasing childcare needs, but at the same time it led to an unprecedented scale of workers performing paid and care work  simultaneously. The overall effects of WFH on work-life balance (WLB) during the pandemic are thus not clear. In our study we argue that three important moderators alter the positive relationship between WFH on perceived changes to WLB during the pandemic: i) time that children spent at home due to the pandemic, ii) change in parent’s working hours during the pandemic and iii) presence of a partner in the household. We place particular interest in gender differences for these effects. We use unique data from the Familydemic Survey, conducted between June and September 2021, on a representative sample of 9,364 mothers and fathers living with at least one child aged less than 12 in six countries (Canada, Italy, Germany, Poland, Sweden and the US). We find evidence showing that WFH was positively related to perceived change in WLB among mothers and fathers, regardless of partnership status. However, the positive effect was weaker among those mothers whose child(ren) stayed at home due to childcare closures for longer than a month. The positive relationship among mothers disappeared if women increased their working hours during the pandemic. In addition, we found a negative relationship between WFH and WLB among fathers who increased their working hours during the pandemic. We also provide evidence that mothers (compared to fathers), parents whose children were out of childcare for six months or more (compared to other parents) and parents who increased their working hours  (compared to other parents) were more likely to report worsened work-life balance during the pandemic.


Kurowska Anna, Kasperska Agnieszka, Kaufman Gayle
remote work work-life balance childcare working hours
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