Abstract

This project explores changes in childcare responsibilities as a possible channel through which the COVID-19 crisis has affected women’s labor. We use COVID-19 school closure policies in Kenya as an exogenous shock to estimate the impact of changes in household childcare needs on adults' labor, leveraging the partial school reopening of schools for students sitting national exams only for identification.

Having a child eligible to return increases adults' labor supply, with gains concentrated in household agriculture hours. Impacts are not significantly different by sex of the adult: though women have greater responsibility for childcare in Kenya, men also contribute and both increased childcare hours during school closures. The impact of partial reopening on work hours corresponds to over 30% of the fall in average hours in the first few months of the pandemic. Large labor effects of a potentially expensive childcare availability shock suggest that policies making childcare more available and affordable could have positive impacts on adult labor supply in Kenya.

This project is a part of the Women's Work, Entrepreneurship, and Skilling (WWES) Initiative.

Implementing Organization

University of California, Berkeley

Project Data Collection Mode

• CATI (Computer-assisted telephone interviewing)

Researchers (*corresponding author)

Edward Miguel (University of California, Berkeley), Pierre Biscay (UC Berkeley - PhD Candidate), Dennis Egger (UC Berkeley - PhD Candidate)

Partners

The World Bank, Kenya Ministry of Education

Questionnaire File Type

Reader-friendly survey instrument

Questionnaire Language(s)

English