Work-Life Balance and Life Satisfaction in OECD Countries: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Work-life balance, as an effort to achieve a balance between work and personal (family) life, has been a key area of concern in labor policies since the early 2000s. One factor contributing to this trend is the implicit assumption that implementing a work-life balance policy increases people's life satisfaction. The association between work-life balance and life satisfaction, however, is not self-evident. In this article, we investigate the effect of work-life balance on life satisfaction using data on men and women in OECD countries. A cross-sectional analysis suggests that implementing work-life balance policy leads to the improvement of life satisfaction for both men and women. However, the work-life balance elasticity of life satisfaction-the percentage change in life satisfaction in response to a 1% change in the level of work-life balance-is greater for men than for women. Conventionally, work-life balance issues have predominantly been thought to concern women rather than men. The present results imply that institutional design that adequately incorporates the work-life balance of both men and women is important for increasing life satisfaction.