Does part-time work help unemployed workers to find full-time work? Evidence from Spain

Resumen

This paper examines whether part-time work acts as a bridge towards full-time work for unemployed workers in Spain. We follow the timing-of-event approach and estimate the causal effect of part-time work on the exit rate to full-time work using a multivariate duration model. Our findings show that the exit rate to full-time work declines when working part time (lock-in effect) but in-creases afterwards (stepping-stone effect), implying a trade-off between the two opposite effects. The resulting net effect of part-time work on the expected time until full-time work is positive in most cases, leading to longer spells without full-time work. This undesirable effect has increased over time, so that the value of temporary part-time work as a pathway to full-time work for the unemployed has reduced.