Maddalena Davoli (University of Zurich)
Uschi Backes-Gellner
We study how knowledge of the short- and long-term costs of reduced working hours affects attitudes towards mothers workload. In an online experiment on a representative sample of Swiss respondents, we randomly provide information about earnings and pension costs associated with reduced working hours to two-thirds of the respondents. We find that the treatment causally affects the attitude towards reduced working hours: treated individuals opt, on average, for longer working hours for the mothers in our hypothetical setting. Moreover, we find that treated respondents who are parents change their attitudes more strongly, being more likely to choose longer mothers working hours than treated respondents that are child-free.