The impact of school disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic on parental labor supply and earnings in Australia

Nicolás Salamanca (), Tanya Gupta (), Irma Mooi-Reci () and Mark Wooden
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Nicolás Salamanca: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/666767-nicolas-salamanca-acosta
Tanya Gupta: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne, https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/882665-tanya-gupta
Irma Mooi-Reci: School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne

Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series from Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne

Abstract: We use quasi-experimental variation in suspension of in-person teaching at schools to estimate the causal impact of school disruptions on parents’ labor supply. School disruptions have a large negative effect on labor force participation, especially for women and for people with weaker labor force attachment. Conditional on remaining employed, school disruptions have no impact hours worked or on wages. Exploring potential mechanisms, we find that school disruptions sharply increase working from home, which can help explain our null effects, and point to even more negative effects on labor force participation in the absence of this margin of adjustment. Classification-J22, I28, I18

Keywords: School disruptions; labor force participation; hours worked; wages; intertemporal treatment effect estimates; COVID-19 pandemic. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 50pp
Date: 2025-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma
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