Men, Women, and Capital: Estimating Substitution Patterns by Using a Size- and Gender-Dependent Childcare Policy in Chile

Diego Escobar, Jeanne Lafortune and José Tessada

Journal of Labor Economics, 2026, vol. 44, issue 4, 1383 - 1434

Abstract: We test whether men and women have the same degree of complementarity to capital by using a policy obligating firms to fund childcare for their female employees if they employ more than 19 women. This policy generated bunching at the threshold, particularly when more enforced, in male-intensive industrial sectors, and in larger firms. Firms that employ 19 women have a higher capital-to-men ratio than firms just above the threshold. Our framework suggests that the distortion in this ratio is consistent with women being less complementary to capital than men, which is confirmed by our calibrated model.

Date: 2026
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/733488 (application/pdf)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/733488 (text/html)
Access to the online full text or PDF requires a subscription.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/733488

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Labor Economics from University of Chicago Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Journals Division ().