School Schedule and Gender Pay Gap
Introduction
Duchini and Van Effenterre (2024) compute the MVPF of extending the school week in France. Before 2013, French school children in kindergarten and primary school had no classes on Wednesdays. In 2013, a reformed instituted classes on Wednesday’s mornings for those pupils. The authors exploit this policy change to implement a differences-in-differences research design, comparing labor force participation and wages of mothers whose youngest child is affected by the reform (treated) with those of mothers whose youngest child is in school but not affected (control). They find that treated mothers adopt more regular work-schedules and see their wages increase. Their probability of work on Wednesdays increases by 3 percentage points and their monthly wages increase by 3 percent relative to the control group.
MVPF = 2.3
Net Cost
The paper reports two main components in the cost calculation.
First, the direct costs to the government of providing schooling on Wednesdays is estimated at €211.55/year per pupil (upper bound estimate in Cassette and Farvaque 2019).
Second, the increased labor supply and wages of mothers leads to an increase in government income tax revenue. This is given by the product of the average marginal income tax rate in the sample (9.4%) and the estimated gross earnings increase due the policy (€574.57), for a total of €54.01.
In addition to the regular income tax, individuals in the sample are subject to a flat earnings tax of 6.8% with a 1.25% tax allowance on gross wages below the national poverty line. Applying the flat tax rule to individuals in the sample and multiplying it by the earnings impact of the program, the authors find an extra €51.28 in tax government revenue per pupil. The total reduction in government costs due to higher tax revenue is therefore €54.01 + €51.28 = €105.29.
Net costs to the government are therefore €211.55-€105.29 = €106.26.
Willingness to Pay
The authors assume that the willingness to pay can be proxied by the pre-reform cost of childcare, which mothers no longer need to pay after the reform. According to the Childcare Costs Supplement of the 2013 Survey on Childcare Arrangements, the average hourly cost of child care is €2.85. Classes were available on Wednesday mornings, which saved families 3 hours of childcare expenses per week. Assuming that families pay for eleven months (48 weeks) of childcare per year, the annual savings were €2.85/hour x 3 hours/week x 48 weeks = €409.81.
The paper assumes that mothers who already worked on Wednesdays (59% of the sample) had to send their kids to private childcare before the reform but switch to save on these costs by sending their kids to school after the reform. The paper assumes that mothers who were not working on Wednesdays before the reform (41%) have zero willingness to pay for the reform.
As a result, the net willingness to pay per pupil is given by €409.81 x 59% = €242.78.
MVPF Summary
Diving the willingness to pay by the costs, the authors get an MVPF of €242.78/€106.26 = 2.28.
References
Cassette, Aurélie, and Étienne Farvaque (2019). “Le coût de la réforme des rythmes scolaires pour les communes.” Economie & Prévision, 2(216): pp. 21–41.
Duchini, Emma, and Clémentine Van Effenterre (2022). “School Schedule and the Gender Pay Gap.” Journal of Human Resources, 59(4): 0121-11431R2. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.0121-11431R2
Policy Features
- Category
- Education
- Sub-Category
- Child Education
- Beneficiary Type(s)
- Parents, Secondary school enrollees
- Country of Implementation
- France
- Year of Implementation
- 2013
- Empirical Method
- Difference in Differences
- Research Type
- Primary
- Peer Reviewed
- No
- MVPF Publication Link
- doi.org/10.3368/jhr.0121-11431R2