Sofiana Sinani

Sofiana Sinani

Research

Work in Progress

Faith, Interrupted: Identity and Behavior After Forced Atheism
Datawork still ongoing · with Enkelejda Havari and Michela Giorcelli
Paper available upon request

Presented at: (2026) ASREC North America (California), CERGE-EI Brown Bag (Prague), ESPE (Helsinki), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (Berlin), Workshop on Gender and Economics (Luxembourg), EEA-ESEM (Dublin); (2025) ASREC Europe Graduate Workshop (Copenhagen), CERGE-EI Applied Micro Seminar (Prague)

The Effect of Longer Maternal Care on Children’s Occupation Choices
CERGE-EI Working Paper
Awards:

This paper investigates whether a mother’s extended provision of full-time childcare shapes her children’s preferences for occupation choices. I analyze a natural experiment in the Czech Republic that extended parental allowances by one year. This induced many mothers to remain out of the workplace and caused them to face a higher likelihood of long-term unemployment. This shift reinforced a more traditional, mother-as-homemaker dynamic within households. Using a regression discontinuity design, I measure their children’s later occupational preferences via their university applications. I find that boys who were exposed to the reform during early childhood were 20% less likely to apply to stereotypically feminine fields in adulthood, with no corresponding effect observed for girls.

Presented at: (2025) EWMES (Nicosia), 4th International Workshop on Migration and Family Economics (Paris), RES Annual Conference (Birmingham); (2024) Dissertation Workshop at CERGE-EI (Prague), 3rd Rare Voices in Economics Conference (Geneva), 3rd NSE PhD and Postdoc Workshop (Naples), PhD seminars at the University of Copenhagen and CEBI, 49th SAEe (Palma de Mallorca)

Income Shocks and Firm Size in India
Data work ongoing · with Andreas Menzel

This paper examines whether medium-run demand shocks lead to sustained changes in firm size. We exploit exogenous fluctuations in agricultural output driven by rainfall variation to identify demand shocks to local village economies. Combining firm and household survey data with geographically detailed crop production, we show that favorable rainfall periods generate positive demand shocks that increase firm size, raise household consumption, and improve local economic outcomes.

Published

Gender Gap in Reported Childcare Preferences among Parents
with Michal Šoltés and Filip Pertold
Review of Economics of the Household, February 2025

The child penalty explains the majority of gender employment and wage gaps; however, less is known about the factors driving the child penalty itself. In this paper, we study the gender gap in childcare preferences as a potential factor that contributes to the child penalty. We surveyed Czech parents and elicited the minimal compensation they would require to stay home to care for a child. Mothers require less compensation for childcare than fathers. The estimated gender gap in childcare preferences is CZK 2,500 monthly, 7.6% of the median female wage, and cannot be explained by differences in labor market opportunities or prosocial motives to care for a family member.