Title: Is kindergarten help or motivation? The unintended benefit of childcare reform for women employment.
(The paper is a joint work with Chiyu Niu, Avralt-Od Purevjav).
Abstract: 'In this paper, we examine the impact of a childcare expansion policy implemented in Uzbekistan from 2018 to 2022 on the labor market participation of working-age women who reside with young children. By leveraging the unique household structure prevalent in the country, we not only investigate the effects on mothers but also consider other informal caregivers within each household, such as grandmothers and other working-age women who could potentially be affected by this policy reform. To establish the causal relationship between the policy and labor market outcomes, we exploit the variation in childcare coverage across different districts and over time. During the last 4-year period due to the reform, the number of preschools in the country increased more than 3.5 times. Our findings reveal that, on average, the childcare expansion policy led to an increase in the female employment rate. However, this average effect masks significant heterogeneity. Particularly noteworthy is the stronger impact of the policy on the labor supply of grandmothers in extended households where they co-reside with mothers, compared to the effect on the mothers themselves.'