School Hours and Female Labor Supply: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Germany

This paper examines the recent German reform to increase school hours at the primary schooling level. I exploit the quasi-experimental nature of reform to look at whether or not increasing school hours increases the likelihood that mothers enter into employment, or extend their working hours if already employed, using the German Socio-Economic Panel data set (GSOEP), to focus on West Germany only. Using a flexible difference-in-difference approach, I find that the policy has an effect at the extensive margin, drawing more women into the labor market, but that most of these women end up working part time and that there is no significant impact of the policy at the intensive margin.