Balancing Work and Childcare : Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya
This paper identifies the impact of childcare responsibilities on adult labor supply in the context of COVID-19-related school closures in Kenya. It compares changes in parents’ labor participation after schools partly reopened in October 2020 for...
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Washington, DC: World Bank
2022
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/210811646666473975/Balancing-Work-and-Childcare-Evidence-from-COVID-19-School-Closures-and-Reopenings-in-Kenya http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37110 |
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okr-10986-371102022-03-10T05:10:50Z Balancing Work and Childcare : Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya Biscaye, Pierre E. Egger, Dennis Timo Pape, Utz Johann CHILDCARE SCHOOL CLOSURE HOUSEHOLDS WITH CHILD CHILD AGRICULTURAL LABOR POVERTY AND EQUITY This paper identifies the impact of childcare responsibilities on adult labor supply in the context of COVID-19-related school closures in Kenya. It compares changes in parents’ labor participation after schools partly reopened in October 2020 for households with children in a grade eligible to return against households with children in adjacent grades. Using nationally-representative panel data from World Bank phone surveys in 2020–21, the findings show that the partial reopening increases affected adults’ weekly labor hours by 22 percent, with increases concentrated in household agriculture. The results suggest that school closures account for over 30 percent of the fall in average work hours in the first few months after COVID-19 cases were detected. The effects are driven by changes in household childcare burdens and child agricultural labor when a student returns to school. The impacts are not significantly different by sex of the adult. Although both women and men increased hours spent on childcare during the pandemic, women benefited more than men from reductions in childcare needs, but took on more of the childcare burden when the returning student was a net childcare provider. The results highlight the importance of siblings in household childcare and suggest that policies that increase childcare availability and affordability could increase adult labor supply in Kenya. 2022-03-09T19:47:10Z 2022-03-09T19:47:10Z 2022-03-07 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/210811646666473975/Balancing-Work-and-Childcare-Evidence-from-COVID-19-School-Closures-and-Reopenings-in-Kenya http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37110 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Kenya |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
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Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
CHILDCARE SCHOOL CLOSURE HOUSEHOLDS WITH CHILD CHILD AGRICULTURAL LABOR POVERTY AND EQUITY |
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CHILDCARE SCHOOL CLOSURE HOUSEHOLDS WITH CHILD CHILD AGRICULTURAL LABOR POVERTY AND EQUITY Biscaye, Pierre E. Egger, Dennis Timo Pape, Utz Johann Balancing Work and Childcare : Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Africa Eastern and Southern (AFE) Kenya |
| description |
This paper identifies the impact of
childcare responsibilities on adult labor supply in the
context of COVID-19-related school closures in Kenya. It
compares changes in parents’ labor participation after
schools partly reopened in October 2020 for households with
children in a grade eligible to return against households
with children in adjacent grades. Using
nationally-representative panel data from World Bank phone
surveys in 2020–21, the findings show that the partial
reopening increases affected adults’ weekly labor hours by
22 percent, with increases concentrated in household
agriculture. The results suggest that school closures
account for over 30 percent of the fall in average work
hours in the first few months after COVID-19 cases were
detected. The effects are driven by changes in household
childcare burdens and child agricultural labor when a
student returns to school. The impacts are not significantly
different by sex of the adult. Although both women and men
increased hours spent on childcare during the pandemic,
women benefited more than men from reductions in childcare
needs, but took on more of the childcare burden when the
returning student was a net childcare provider. The results
highlight the importance of siblings in household childcare
and suggest that policies that increase childcare
availability and affordability could increase adult labor
supply in Kenya. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Biscaye, Pierre E. Egger, Dennis Timo Pape, Utz Johann |
| author_facet |
Biscaye, Pierre E. Egger, Dennis Timo Pape, Utz Johann |
| author_sort |
Biscaye, Pierre E. |
| title |
Balancing Work and Childcare : Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya |
| title_short |
Balancing Work and Childcare : Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya |
| title_full |
Balancing Work and Childcare : Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya |
| title_fullStr |
Balancing Work and Childcare : Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Balancing Work and Childcare : Evidence from COVID-19 School Closures and Reopenings in Kenya |
| title_sort |
balancing work and childcare : evidence from covid-19 school closures and reopenings in kenya |
| publisher |
Washington, DC: World Bank |
| publishDate |
2022 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/210811646666473975/Balancing-Work-and-Childcare-Evidence-from-COVID-19-School-Closures-and-Reopenings-in-Kenya http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37110 |
| _version_ |
1764486576774053888 |