Financial Impacts of Reduced Hours for Mothers with Ursina Schaede

Today, the main source of gender gaps in high-income countries is related to family formation. After their first child is born, mothers’ labor market participation and earnings decline relative to fathers’, with substantial implications for lifetime income and pension savings. But do women fully anticipate these costs when deciding how much to work as a parent? In this talk, Tufts assistant professor Ursina Schaede will present the results from a randomized control trial that provides mothers with information about the long-term costs of reduced hours. The treatment increases demand for financial tools and planned employment levels in the long term. Women who initially underestimate the costs of part-time employment adjust their work hours upwards one year after the intervention, as measured in employer records.

Ursina Schaede is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Tufts University. As an applied microeconomist, she studies labor markets with a focus on education and gender. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Zurich and a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.