Sofiana Sinani

This paper investigates whether a mother’s extended provision of full-time childcare shapes her children’s preferences for occupation choices. I analyze a natural experiment in the Czech Republic: a one-year extension of parental allowances that induced many mothers to leave their jobs, receiving extended allowances, and facing a higher likelihood of long-term unemployment. This shift reinforced a more traditional, mother-as-homemaker dynamic within households. Using a regression discontinuity design, I measure children’s revealed occupational preferences through their university applications. I find that boys who were exposed to the reform during early childhood were 20% less likely to apply to stereotypically feminine fields in adulthood, with no corresponding effect observed for girls. I examine potential channels and find no evidence that the reform altered children’s academic ability (proxied by high school track) or their preferences for research- and mathematicsoriented tracks. The results are therefore consistent with the interpretation that longer exposure to a stay-at-home mother, by accentuating traditional gender roles at home, can reduce boys’ openness to nurturing- and care-oriented careers. This study provides the first causal evidence that the duration of maternal care can influence the gender-specific occupational choices. 

The child penalty explains the majority of gender employment and wage gaps; however, less is known about the factors driving the child penalty itself. In this paper, we study the gender gap in childcare preferences as a potential factor that contributes to the child penalty. We surveyed Czech parents and elicited the minimal compensation they would require to stay home to care for a child. Mothers require less compensation for childcare than fathers. The estimated gender gap in childcare preferences is CZK 2,500 monthly, 7.6% of the median female wage, and cannot be explained by differences in labor market opportunities or prosocial motives to care for a family member. We further document widespread misperception of fathers’ preferences, as respondents incorrectly expect fathers to require less to care for a child than to care for an elderly parent.