Lenard Paul Simon

Research

Working Paper

How has the increase in work from home impacted the parental division of labor? (with R. Holler, H.-M. von Gaudecker, and C. Zimpelmann)

We analyze how parents' flexibility gains through increases in remote work impact their division of non-market and market work. We do so using representative panel survey data and population-wide administrative data from the Netherlands spanning the years 2012--2021. We argue that we are able to isolate the effect of working from home since (1) the remote work potential was realized to a large extent only during the Covid-19 pandemic, (2) schools and daycare were available in the Netherlands throughout the pandemic, with a brief exception in spring 2020, and (3) generous support schemes kept working hours, unemployment and earnings at a similar level as before the pandemic. As a result of the fact that fathers gained more flexibility than mothers, parents divide childcare duties more equally and mothers increase their working hours. These findings suggest that wider acceptance of remote work by employers could lead to greater gender equality in the intra-household division of labor.

Work in Progress

 Withheld from Working More? Withholding Taxes and the Labor Supply of Married Women (with T. Bayer and J. Wegmann) 

Draft available upon request

Can the complexity of income tax systems impact labor supply decisions? We study this question in the context of withholding taxes paid by married couples in Germany. In a first step, we document with the help of a survey that less than 20 % of the interviewed married individuals understand that withholding taxes are tax prepayments which are fully credited against the final income tax and, therefore, do not determine the income tax burden. Making use of a reform that decreased the withholding tax burden for some married women more than for others, while inducing no differences in income taxes, allows us to then estimate the elasticity of labor income with respect to the withholding tax. In line with our survey findings, we show that women adjust their labor supply following a change in withholding taxes. Given that within married couples in Germany secondary earners typically pay higher (monthly) withholding tax rates than primary earners, our results suggest that the high withholding tax burden of married women in Germany contributes to their low labor supply. The results also highlight that governments should be aware that too high withholding taxes result in an overestimation of the actual income tax and thus distort labor supply incentives.

The Effects of Initial Labor Market Conditions and Local Residence Restrictions on the Integration of Refugees in Germany 

Draft available upon request

The design of refugee dispersal policies and the extent to which a host country should restrict the spatial mobility of refugees is highly debated. I study these questions using data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees, a representative survey of refugees who arrived in Germany between 2013 and 2016. In a first step, I document that being assigned to a county with high unemployment greatly worsens the economic and social integration of a refugee. I then use a difference-in-differences approach to analyze the impact of local residence restrictions on the integration of refugees in Germany making use of an institutional reform that limited the free choice of residence of refugee differently across states. My results show that while local residence restrictions have, on average, a positive impact on the economic and social integration of refugees, these effects are highly heterogeneous depending on the local economic conditions in the initial location. While refugees being assigned to counties with low unemployment benefit, there is no positive effect detectable for those being assigned to counties with high unemployment. Taken together, these findings suggest that when designing refugee dispersal policies, policy makers should be aware of the strong negative impacts of unfavorable labor market conditions on the integration of a refugee and that local residence restrictions are not necessary an effective measure to improve the integration of those refugees.