Preschool Attendance and Intra-Household Time Allocation: Evidence from Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the indirect effects of preschool on intra-household variables related to maternal labor supply, the older sibling’s domestic, productive work, and the demand for education for older siblings. We used the Constitutional Amendment that makesmandatory preschool attendance from 4 years old onwards as the identification strategy, and we used this discontinuity to perform an RDD fuzzy estimation. Results show that the child’s attendance at preschool increases the mother’s average weekly working hours by 26 hours but does not affect the hours offered by older siblings in the labor market. In addition, the intervention increases the older siblings’ household chores in low-income families. Concerning older siblings’ education attendance, the younger child’s preschool attendance showed adverse effects; the preschool reduces the school attendance of the older sibling. This effectis heterogeneous when considering the older siblings’ sex: girls are more affected than boys. Finally, the results identify the substitution effect of time allocation between the mother and the older sibling.