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(Not) Thinking About the Future: Financial Information and Maternal Labor Supply

Ana Costa-Ramón et al.

The Quarterly Journal of Economics2026https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjag003article
FT50AJG 4*ABDC A*
Weight
0.37

Abstract

Does information about the long-run financial costs of reduced labor supply increase mothers’ working hours? We document descriptively that long-term financial factors are not top of mind when mothers decide on their employment level. Moreover, a substantial share of women holds overly optimistic expectations about pension receipt and wage growth under part-time work. In a large-scale field experiment in Switzerland, we randomly assign mothers working part-time as teachers to receive objective information about the long-run costs of reduced labor supply. The treatment increases both demand for financial information and future labor supply plans, in particular among women who underestimate the costs of part-time work. Leveraging linked employer administrative data one year post-intervention, we find that this group of mothers increases working hours by 7%. These findings underscore that policies reducing information frictions in labor supply decisions may help address remaining gender gaps in the labor market.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjag003

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@article{ana2026,
  title        = {{(Not) Thinking About the Future: Financial Information and Maternal Labor Supply}},
  author       = {Ana Costa-Ramón et al.},
  journal      = {The Quarterly Journal of Economics},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjag003},
}

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(Not) Thinking About the Future: Financial Information and Maternal Labor Supply

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Evidence weight

0.37

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.16 × 0.4 = 0.06
M · momentum0.53 × 0.15 = 0.08
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.