Young Children and Parents' Labor Supply during COVID-19

Abstract

We study the COVID-19 pandemic's effects on the labor supply of parents with young children. Using the monthly Current Population Survey, and following a pre-analysis plan, we use three variations of difference-indifferences to compare workers with childcare needs to those without. The first compares parents with young children and those without young children, while the second and third rely on the presence of someone who could provide childcare in the household: a teenager in one and a grandparent in the other. We analyze three outcomes: whether parents were "at work" (not sick, on vacation, or otherwise away from his or her job); whether they were employed; and hours worked. Contrary to expectation, we find the labor supply of parents with young children was not negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, some evidence suggests they were more likely to be working after the pandemic unfolded. For the outcomes of being at work and employed, our results are not systematically different for men and women, but some findings suggest women with young children worked almost an hour longer per week than those without. These results suggest that factors like employers allowing employees to work at home and informal sources of childcare aided parents in avoiding negative shocks to their labor supply during the pandemic.

COVID-19 and Education: A Survey of the Research

“…While journalistic accounts support the view that labor force participation has fallen because of at-home schooling (Guilford 2020 andGuilford andChaney Cambon 2020), much of the academic research on school closures and labor force participation thus far runs counter to this conventional wisdom. Barkowski, McLaughlin, and Dai (2020) use data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to estimate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on three labor market outcomes: being employed, being at work (which differs from being employed because it excludes, for example, people who are sick or on vacation), and hours worked. They use three separate research designs to study how these outcomes changed over time for a treatment group relative to a control group.…”

“…The results of Barkowski, McLaughlin, and Dai (2020) vary based on which outcome they consider-being employed, being at work, and hours worked-and which of the three research designs they use. Insofar as they find an effect on labor market outcomes, it is a positive one.…”

“…One potential explanation for the results in Barkowski, McLaughlin, and Dai (2020) is that many people are able to work from home. It may even be possible that some people who wouldn't work for pay under normal circumstances were drawn into the labor force because of the ability to work remotely.…”

“…Furthermore, using exact dates of school closures and high-frequency Google search data, Kong and Prinz (2020) find that school closures are not associated with searches for the phrase "file for unemployment," a proxy for filing for unemployment that can be used by researchers at a higher frequency than the official government employment data. Heggeness (2020) uses CPS data to estimate the effects of school closures on labor market outcomes, like Barkowski, McLaughlin, and Dai (2020), but she relies on variation in school closures over time and across states, like Lozano-Rojas et al (2020). Heggeness finds some evidence that school closures are associated with an increase in not working the previous week, but school closures also appear to be associated with an increase in hours worked.…”

Why Is Mommy So Stressed? Estimating the Immediate Impact of the "COVID-19 Shock" on Parental Attachement to the Labor Market and the Double-Bind of Mothers

“…Other studies also hint at the unique impact of the pandemic on mothers' labor supply (Barkowski, McLaughlin, & Dai 2020;. Collins et al (2020) use monthly panel data to examine trends in hours worked in early months, finding that mothers in dual-career couples reduced hours worked in the late spring compared to the first few months of the year.…”