Delaying School Entry: Short- and Longer-Term Effects on Mothers' Employment

Abstract

Mothers' short- and longer-term employment patterns may be influenced by their child's entry to school. This paper assesses these relationships, adopting an identification strategy that draws upon school entry cut-off rules, which imply that children whose birthdates are one day apart, but lie on either side of the cut-off date, can begin school one year apart. We find that this variation has a significant initial impact on mothers' employment, but this effect quickly disappears, suggesting little evidence of longer-term employment impacts of mothers' absence from the workforce when they have young children.