Where There's Smoke. Stochastic Caregiving Shocks and Mothers' Labor Market Outcomes.

Autor/inn/en	Zivin, Joshua S. Graff; Lee, Seunghoon
Institution	National Bureau of Economic Research
Titel	Where There's Smoke. Stochastic Caregiving Shocks and Mothers' Labor Market Outcomes.
Quelle	Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research (2026) PDF als Volltext (1); PDF als Volltext (2) Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	NBER working paper series. w35264
Beigaben	Illustrationen
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monografie; Graue Literatur
DOI	10.3386/w35264
Schlagwörter	Jugend; Mutter; Frau; Kind; Kinderbetreuung; Klima; Schock; Katastrophe; Arbeitskraft; Arbeitsplatzangebot; Arbeitspapier
Abstract	Formal childcare and public schooling are widely understood to be central to mothers' labor market attachment. Yet, a large literature finds that even substantial expansions of formal childcare produce modest or null effects on maternal employment. We study the role of stochastic caregiving demand shocks that cause childcare constraints to bind intermittently even when formal care is available. Using plausibly exogenous variation in wildfire smoke exposure, we show that smoke increases school closures and student absenteeism, generating caregiving demand. Further, by comparing mothers whose youngest child varies in reliance on school-based childcare, we find that these shocks impose substantial contemporaneous costs and, when accumulated, reduce employment. Employment losses are fully offset among mothers working outside male-dominated industries, consistent with workplace tolerance moderating the consequences of intermittent caregiving demands.
Erfasst von	ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Kiel
Update	2026/4