Children's Educational Enrollment and Maternal Labor Supply

Presenter

Clemente Pignatti (University of Milan)

Coauthors

Alessandro Tondini

Abstract

We examine the impact of a South African reform anticipating children's admission into primary school on children's enrollment and mothers' labor supply. Using Census data and exploiting month-of-birth discontinuities and the before/after variation introduced by the reform, we find a 7pp increase in school attendance at age 5. However, unlike prior studies, we detect no effect on maternal employment and the type of jobs held. We argue that this difference arises from South Africa’s already high school attendance and low maternal employment. In districts where conditions align more closely with previous studies, increased enrollment does boost maternal employment.