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%T "Who'll take the chair?" Maternal employment effects of a Polish (pre)school reform %A Akgündüz, Yusuf Emre %A Huizen, Thomas van %A Plantenga, Janneke %J Empirical Economics %N 2 %P 1097-1133 %V 61 %D 2021 %K Hours worked; Difference-in-differences; Polish Labor Force Survey (LFS) 2005-2011 %@ 1435-8921 %~ FDB %> https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-75200-3 %X This study examines the impact of preschool availability on the employment of mothers of preschool-aged children. We exploit a transitional phase of a 2009 Polish education reform that simultaneously lowered the primary school age from 7 to 6 and provided a statutory right to preschool to 5-year-olds. As a significant share of 6-year-old children moved into primary schools a year earlier, their preschool seats effectively became available for younger children. The reform thereby led to a substantial rise in the number of available preschool seats for 3- to 5-year-olds. Using regional variation in the degree of preschool expansion, we estimate the impact of the increased availability of preschool seats on maternal employment. Our results indicate a significant and sizable employment effect: a 10% points increase in the ratio of preschool seats to preschool-aged children increases maternal employment by around 4.2% points. The effect seems to be concentrated among highly educated mothers and mothers with a youngest child of age three. %C DEU %G en %9 Zeitschriftenartikel %W GESIS - http://www.gesis.org %~ SSOAR - http://www.ssoar.info