RESUMO
Asymmetry in childcare responsibilities is one of the main reasons behind gender gaps in the labor market. In that context, the ability to work from home may alleviate the hindrances of women with children to participate in the labor market. We study these issues in Latin America, a region with wide gender gaps, in the framework of a major shock that severely affected employment: the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, we estimate models of job loss exploiting microdata from the World Bank's High-Frequency Phone Surveys conducted immediately after the onset of the pandemic. We find that the mitigating effect of working from home on the severity of job losses was especially relevant for women with children. The results are consistent with a plausible mechanism: due to the traditional distribution of childcare responsibilities within the household, women with children were more likely to stay home during school closures, and therefore the ability to work from home was crucial for them to keep their jobs.
RESUMO
We use longitudinal data from the Mexican Health and Aging Study to analyze the effect of having a parent in need of long-term care on labor supply of men and women aged 50-64 in Mexico. After accounting for both individual and time fixed effects, we find that parents' need of long-term care is associated with both a significant drop in the likelihood of working (by 2.42 percentage points), and a reduction in the number of hours worked (by 7.3%) among women who remain employed. In contrast, we find no effect on the labor supply of men. In a context of rapid population aging, the increase in the need of long-term care risks to hinder the efforts to reduce gender imbalances in the labor market.
RESUMO
This study examines changes in labor supply, income, and time allocation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Mexico. Using an event-study design, we show that the COVID-19 recession had severe negative consequences for Mexican households. In the first month of the pandemic, employment declined by 17 percentage points. Men recovered their employment faster than women, where men's employment approaches original levels by 2021Q2. Women, on the other hand, experienced persistent employment losses. Within-household, men also increased their time spent on household chores while neither gender (persistently) increased their time caring for others. Instead, children reduced their time spent on schoolwork by 25%.