Gender Economics Seminar, at the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI).

Olof Rosenqvist from IFAU presents "Gender-targeted transfers by default? Evidence from a child allowance reform in Sweden".

This is an in-person only event.

Read more about our seminars series, workshops and conferences here:

Conferences and seminars

Abstract

We exploit a sharp birthday discontinuity in a large and universal Swedish cash transfer program, creating plausibly exogenous variation in the default disbursement option, while holding entitlements and other financial incentives constant. When the cash transfer is paid out to the mother by default, instead of a 50/50 default, it has a huge effect on the probability that the transfer is deposited in the mother’s bank account also in the long run. Surprisingly, we find that the default policy redistributes resources to separated low-income mothers. We find no indications that the 100%-to-the-mother default induces mothers to work less or to take more responsibility for the children.