When Schools Close in Russia: Effects on Parental Labor Supply and Work from Home

Abstract

This study provides new evidence on the impact of COVID-19 school closures on parental labor supply in Russia. Using data from the 2017-2022 Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey and newly-assembled data on grade-specific regional school closures, difference-in-differences (DD) estimates show that school closures induced a 10-15 percent decline in employment among mothers of school-aged children. Mothers also increase remote work and short-run evening/nighttime work in response to school closures. These results are robust to accounting for heterogeneous and dynamic treatment effects. In contrast, fathers’ labor supply was largely unaffected. Our findings highlight strong gendered effects to school closures in Russia.

Publication
Journal of Labor Economics, Accepted

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