Personnel Economics Workshop (PEW)

Notice

• PEW in 2025 will be held on the fourth Saturday of each month. The workshop starts at 3:00 p.m.

• Each workshop basically consists of two sessions: a 1-hour presentation and a 1.5-hour presentation by an invited speaker.

Next Workshop

October 25 (Sat.) 2025

• Venue: TBA

1st Session

• Speaker: Kyota Eguchi, Chuo University

• Title:  Too much work to do

• Abstract:

We show an applied model to consider a working environment in which managers assign various tasks to workers. Managers fail to recognize their value or importance, but workers can recognize if they incur a certain research cost. When workers are given a workload that is within their capabilities, they will complete all tasks without hesitation, including those that are less important. If the workload exceeds their capabilities, some tasks will be left unfinished. Nevertheless, workers will prioritize more important tasks, which can be effective. Excessive work assignment makes workers identify and prioritize import work. As hiring and work costs increase, workers are given more work assignment that exceed their capacity and leave more tasks undone.

• Language: TBA

• Time: 15:00 - 16:30

2nd Session

• Speaker: Akira Kawaguchi, Doshisha University

• Title:  Disrupting Workplace Gendered Divisions of Labor: Men’s Parental Leave and Women’s Career Prospects in Japanese Firms

• Abstract:

Parental leave is widely adopted across industrialized countries, and an increasing number of nations have recently introduced father-specific quotas. Existing research on men’s parental leave primarily emphasizes the substitution of childcare between women and men, suggesting that men’s uptake reduces women’s childcare burden and facilitates their labor force participation and promotion to managerial positions. This study highlights an additional mechanism through which men’s parental leave may promote gender equality in the labor market. Using panel data on publicly listed firms in Japan, we examine whether men’s uptake of parental leave increases the proportion of female managers within the same firm. Fixed effects models with lagged explanatory variables show that higher male uptake raises the share of female managers, albeit with a substantial time lag. This finding supports the view that men’s leave-taking reduces gender gaps in firm commitment and human capital accumulation, thereby lowering statistical discrimination against women. It also aligns with the “undoing gender” perspective: when men take parental leave within a firm, it can disrupt gendered labor divisions and weaken structural barriers to women’s career advancement.

• Language: TBA

• Time: 16:45-18:15

How to attend?

Sign up to our mailing list to receive information about our workshop by sending an email to: eoe-office[@]list.waseda.jp (Replace [@] with @.)

In-person venues or/and Zoom meeting URL will be announced via the mailing list.

Upcoming Workshops