Women's Labor Subsidy

The paper presented in this Mannheim Applied Seminar studies the effects of the Women’s Labour Subsidy (WLS), introduced in 2012, on women’s labour outcomes. The authors use detailed administrative records for more than 2.5 million women that allow them to analyze employment and income trajectories before, during, and after the implementation of the subsidy. Using a regression discontinuity design that exploits the fact that eligibility is contingent upon falling below a specified vulnerability score cutoff, the authors analyze how both eligibility and being a program beneficiary affect labour outcomes. The results indicate no significant effects of WLS eligibility on women’s employment, months worked, or income over the period spanning 2012 to 2019. They also find null effects on labour outcomes for program beneficiaries. The null effect is relatively constant for different subgroups of eligible women.