Understanding the Congestion Child Penalty: Can Remote Work Attenuate It?

We study the impact of commuting time on the labor supply of women with children in the United States. We show that congestion and long commutes discourage the labor force participation of mothers with low levels of education, while they do not change the probability that college graduate mothers participate in the workforce. We provide evidence that unequal access to remote work can explain the heterogeneous effects of congestion. Because work-from-home arrangements are more prevalent among college-educated workers, they shield highly educated mothers from the adverse impact of congestion on their labor supply. We also show that cohabiting with a partner who has access to remote work is associated with a reduction in the congestion-induced mobility constraints faced by non-college educated mothers. Last, we show that cultural differences across education groups and the lack of affordable childcare options do not explain why long commuting time disproportionately affects the labor force participation rate of non-college graduate mothers.