Child custody laws and partners' cooperation: An analysis of married and unmarried mothers during the time of COVID‐19

Abstract This paper evaluates the impact of 50/50 custody laws on mothers' decision to leave the labor force for caregiving during the COVID‐19 pandemic. During the onset of the pandemic, variation in family law regarding shared parenting may have affected the labor market decisions of mothers and the impact may have been stronger for those in fragile non‐cooperative relationships. We use monthly CPS data from January 2019 to May 2021 to show that the impact of COVID‐19 changed the labor force outcomes for mothers based on child custody laws, marital status and parental educational attainment.