Chiara Daniela Pronzato (University of Torino)

“Does Information Matter for Women Decisions? Experimental Evidence from Childcare”

abstract

Gender stereotypes are well eradicated also among women. Yet, a recent literature suggests that learning from other women experience about the effects of maternal employment on children outcomes may increase female labor force participation. In this paper, we design a survey experiment to provide a direct analysis of how direct information on the positive consequences of formal childcare on children outcomes affects decisions about the use of formal childcare and female labor market participation. Our survey experiment, carried out on a sample of 1500 Italian women, shows that high educated non-mothers would be more willing to send their children to formal childcare, and would pay more for it; low educated non-mothers would like to take more on themselves the care of their children, and thus would reduce their willingness to work in the market. Our theoretical model suggests that heterogeneous effects emerge because of different incentives faced by women with different career opportunities.