After-School Care and Parents’ Labor Supply

(2016), Labour Economics 43:64-75 (with M. Lechner and P. Thiemann)

Does the provision of after-school care promotematernal employment and thus help to foster gender equality in
labor supply?We address this question by exploiting variation in cantonal (state) regulations of after-school care
provision in Switzerland. To establish exogeneity of cantonal regulationswith respect to employment opportunities
and preferences of the population, we restrict our analysis to confined regions along cantonal borders.While no
impact of the after-school care provision on parental employment exists overall, we find a positive impact on the
full-time employment of mothers.