Seminar "Childcare Costs and Timing of Maternal Employment Decisions after Childbirth"

On Tuesday, October 2, 2018 at 18:10 Laboratory for Labour Market Studies and Centre for Labour Market Studies will hold the joint research seminar.

Speaker: Natalia Gashenina, Graduate of the HSE master’s program "Population and Development".

Theme: Childcare Costs and Timing of Maternal Employment Decisions after Childbirth.

Higher childcare costs make mothers of children under the age of four postpone their employment after the childbirth. Mothers who don’t have access to informal care, start to work later because public childcare slots for children younger than two years old remain scarce in Russia. Using the relatively detailed information available in the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics, this paper explores women’s decision to return to work within four years of the birth of their children, focusing particularly on the effect of child care costs.

Consistent with economic theory, multinomial logistic analysis proves that childcare costs significantly related to the employment decisions of mothers with children under the age of four. Higher childcare costs make mothers to postpone the return to the labor market, and mothers with children under the age of three are less likely to start to work compared to the mother who started to work when their child reached the age of three. Previous employment history and higher pre-birth wage, which is considered as opportunity costs for a maternal employment decision, are positively related to the earlier return to work. Women with children 0-17 months old are most sensitive to the majority of determinants of a maternal employment decision, including childcare costs, wage, availability of public childcare, access to part-time work opportunities, family structure and non-working income, which is most likely determined by the social and family policy in Russia.

Discussant: Olga Lazareva, Assistant Professor at HSE Department of Applied Economics 

Working language is English.

Location: room 5309, 26 Shabolovka str., campus building 5.

If you don't have HSE pass please send email with your Name and Surname to Lilia Gubajdullina ( lgubajdullina@hse.ru ) no later than October, 1, 12:00.