The Effect of Longer Maternal Care on Children's Occupation Choices

This paper investigates whether a mother's extended provision of full-time childcare shapes her children's preferences for occupation choices. I analyze a natural experiment in the Czech Republic that extended parental allowances by one year. This induced many mothers to remain out of the workplace and caused them to face a higher likelihood of long-term employment. This shift reinforced a more traditional, mother-as-homemaker dynamic within households. Using a regression discontinuity design, I measure their children's later occupational preferences via their university applications. I find that boys who were exposed to the reform during early childhood were 20% less likely to apply to stereotypically feminine fields in adulthood, with no corresponding effect observed for girls. I examine potential channels and find no evidence that the reform altered children's academic ability (proxied by high school track) or their preferences for research- and mathematicsoriented tracks. The results are therefore consistent with the interpretation that longer exposure to a stay-at-home mother, which may accentuate traditional gender roles, can reduce boys openness to nurturing- and care-oriented careers. This study provides the first causal evidence that the duration of maternal care can influence the gender-specific occupational choices.