Parental labour supply responses to the abolition of day care fees

Huebener, Mathias; Pape, Astrid; Spieß, C. Katharina

doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2020.09.019

Cited by 21 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Others find small or no causal effects on maternal employment in the US, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands or Norway (Bettendorf, Jongen, & Muller, 2015;Busse & Gathmann, 2018;Cascio, 2009;Havnes & Mogstad, 2011;Lundin et al, 2008;Zoch & Hondralis, 2017). Huebener, Pape, and Spiess (2019) find that the costs for childcare in Germany reduce working hours, while labor force participation is hardly affected. Similarly, studies evaluating cash-for-care policies in various countries also only find small employment responses to changes in the policies (Gathmann & Sass, 2018;Naz, 2004;Schøne, 2004).…”

Section: Definition Of Opportunity Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Structural legacies and the motherhood penalty: How past societal contexts shape mothers’ employment outcomes in reunified Germany

Collischon¹,

Eberl²,

Reichelt³

2020

Preprint

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Motherhood penalties vary strongly across societal contexts. While most studies that aim to explain such differences focus on institutions, a smaller literature refers to the influence of cultural norms or a complex interaction between the two. Empirically, however, it is yet unclear if such norms play a role and how they—jointly with institutions—contribute to motherhood penalties. We make use of a unique historical setting that allows us to assess how societal contexts affect maternal work preferences and labor market outcomes in the short- and long-run. Germany’s division into socialist East and parliamentary democratic West led to considerably different gender norms. But German reunification in 1990 mostly realigned gendered institutions. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we show that East and West German mothers’ preferred and realized labor force participation and working hours nevertheless remain divergent. We then focus on East German women who moved to the West during and after the country’s transitionary period. Despite moving to a context with more conservative gender norms, East German mothers in the West retain and fulfill their work preferences. Our findings imply that it is the structural legacy of past norms and institutions, not current ones, that shapes maternal work preferences and thus pave the way for motherhood penalties. Moreover, societal norms at the time of childbirth do not directly affect mothers’ labor force participation, working hours, or wages. Gendered outcomes in the labor market are thus highly dependent on institutional and normative changes across cohorts.

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Section: Definition Of Opportunity Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Structural legacies and the motherhood penalty: How past societal contexts shape mothers’ employment outcomes in reunified Germany

Collischon¹,

Eberl²,

Reichelt³

2020

Preprint

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“…Evidence suggests that day care cost reductions promote maternal employment (see e.g. Busse andGathmann, 2019, Huebener, Pape, andSpiess, 2019 for fee reductions in Germany, and e.g. Baker, Gruber, and Milligan, 2008 for international evidence).…”

Section: Institutional and Covid-19 Policy Background In Germanymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2015, around 63 percent of mothers whose youngest child was aged between three and five were part of the labor force; of these, 30 percent worked full-time. Paternal labor supply is consistently very high, with most fathers working full-time (see, e.g., Huebener et al, 2019).…”

Section: Institutional and Covid-19 Policy Background In Germanymentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental Well-Being in Times of COVID-19 in Germany

Huebener

Spieß

Siegel³

et al. 2020

SSRN Journal

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We examine the differential effects of Covid-19 and related restrictions on individuals with dependent children in Germany. We specifically focus on the role of school and day care center closures, which may be regarded as a "disruptive exogenous shock" to family life. We make use of a novel representative survey of parental well-being collected in May and June 2020 in Germany, when schools and day care centers were closed but while other measures had been relaxed and new infections were low. In our descriptive analysis, we compare well-being during this period with a pre-crisis period for different groups. In a difference-in-differences design, we compare the change for individuals with children to the change for individuals without children, accounting for unrelated trends as well as potential survey mode and context effects. We find that the crisis lowered the relative well-being of individuals with children, especially for individuals with young children, for women, and for persons with lower secondary schooling qualifications. Our results suggest that public policy measures taken to contain Covid-19 can have large effects on family well-being, with implications for child development and parental labor market outcomes.

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“…Daycare fees are relatively low, and some states have even abolished them (e.g. Huebener et al, 2020;Schmitz et al, 2017). The share of for-profit providers is low at about 2 percent (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2018).…”

Section: Institutional Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Grandparenting Pay off for the Next Generations? Intergenerational Effects of Grandparental Care

Barschkett¹,

Spieß

Ziege³

2021

SSRN Journal

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Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and not those of IZA. Research published in this series may include views on policy, but IZA takes no institutional policy positions. The IZA research network is committed to the IZA Guiding Principles of Research Integrity. The IZA Institute of Labor Economics is an independent economic research institute that conducts research in labor economics and offers evidence-based policy advice on labor market issues. Supported by the Deutsche Post Foundation, IZA runs the world's largest network of economists, whose research aims to provide answers to the global labor market challenges of our time. Our key objective is to build bridges between academic research, policymakers and society. IZA Discussion Papers often represent preliminary work and are circulated to encourage discussion. Citation of such a paper should account for its provisional character. A revised version may be available directly from the author.

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Parental labour supply responses to the abolition of day care fees

Cited by 21 publications

References 52 publications

Structural legacies and the motherhood penalty: How past societal contexts shape mothers’ employment outcomes in reunified Germany

Structural legacies and the motherhood penalty: How past societal contexts shape mothers’ employment outcomes in reunified Germany

Parental Well-Being in Times of COVID-19 in Germany

Does Grandparenting Pay off for the Next Generations? Intergenerational Effects of Grandparental Care

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