School enrolment and mothers’ labor supply: evidence from a regression discontinuity approach

Henning Finseraas, Inés Hardoy and Pål Schøne ()
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Henning Finseraas: Institute for Social Research

Review of Economics of the Household, 2017, vol. 15, issue 2, No 12, 638 pages

Abstract: Abstract We analyze the impact on maternal employment of a universal school reform in Norway which lowered the school starting age from seven to six. We use a regression discontinuity approach exploiting exogenous variation in the compulsory school enrollment rule caused by the reform. Our results reveal positive short-term effects on labor supply (approximately five percentage points) and on earnings (about 12600/1350 NOK/Euro). Subgroup analyses show that the positive effects are much stronger for mothers with low wage potential, a group of mothers that were less likely to use formal childcare prior to the reform. The positive effects for this subgroup of mothers suggest that expanding child-care can be an effective tool for increasing labor supply of mothers who previously had relatively low labor market earnings potential.

Keywords: Labor supply; Mothers; School entry; Regression discontinuity; I21; J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11150-016-9350-0

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