Remote Schooling during the Pandemic: A Double Burden for Working Parents in Sweden?

Christoph Kronenberg, Ulf-Göran Gerdtham and Martin Karlsson

Journal of Labor Economics, 2026, vol. 44, issue S1, S139 - S160

Abstract: We study whether remote schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic affected parental labor supply in Sweden. Exploiting quasi-experimental variation from grade-specific recommendations and municipal decisions, we compare parents of similarly aged children within the same municipality. Using register data linked to information on remote schooling days, we find no employment effects and only short-lived earnings changes of negligible magnitude. These results hold across gender and remote work capability. We estimate precise zeros, and across specifications we rule out that 20 remote schooling days changed maternal employment by more than 1.9 percentage points. Sweden’s context appears to have buffered these disruptions.

Date: 2026
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