The Effect of Maternal Job Loss on School Dropout and Track Choice

Dániel Horn () and Rita Pető ()
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Dániel Horn: Corvinus University of Budapest; ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies
Rita Pető: ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies

No 2610, KRTK-KTI WORKING PAPERS from Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies

Abstract: Maternal job loss may deepen educational inequality by disrupting children’s schooling at critical transition points. Using linked Hungarian administrative and educational data, we compare children whose mothers experience sustained non-employment after grade 6 with those whose mothers experience it only after grade 10. Maternal job loss increases school dropout by 4.3 percentage points, relative to a mean of 6.7 percent. Its average effect on maturity-track enrollment is largely associated with increased dropout rather than track reallocation among enrolled students. The larger adverse effects observed in the top baseline maternal earnings tertile provide suggestive support for a financial mechanism, while the smaller maturity-track effects among children of more-educated mothers are consistent with a compensatory role for parental resources.

Keywords: maternal job loss; school dropout; secondary-school track choice; parental education; intergenerational mobility; linked administrative data; difference-in-differences; Hungary (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 I21 I24 J13 J62 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-08
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