Working Paper: NBER ID: w21080
Authors: Mara F. Prada; Graciana Rucci; Sergio S. Urza
Abstract: This paper studies the effect of mandated employer-provided child care on the wages of women hired in large firms in Chile. We use a unique employer-employee database from the country's unemployment insurance (UI) system containing monthly information for all individuals that started a new contract between January 2005 and March 2013. We estimate the impact of the program using regression discontinuity design (RDD) exploiting the fact that child care provision is mandatory for all firms with 20 or more female workers. The results indicate that monthly starting wages of the infra-marginal woman hired in a firm with 20 or more female workers are between 9 and 20 percent below those of female workers hired by the same firm when no requirement of providing child care was imposed.
Keywords: Child care; Female wages; Labor market; Chile; Regression discontinuity design
JEL Codes: C21; J32; J71; J82
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| mandated provision of child care (J13) | cost of hiring women (J71) |
| cost of hiring women (J71) | wages of women (J31) |
| mandated child care provision (J13) | wage penalty for women (J31) |
| wage penalty for women (J31) | disadvantage in wages for women (J31) |
| mandated child care provision (J13) | wages of women in large firms in Chile (J39) |
| wages of women in firms with 20 or more female workers (J39) | wages of women in firms without mandated child care (J39) |