Masaryk University Economic Seminars

Do people think enough before acting? We study this in a first laboratory experiment where participants can either use a known but tedious method or search for a more efficient strategy whose existence they are made aware of, but whose nature is not disclosed. We exogenously induce early search through a "Freeze" intervention, where participants must spend 90 seconds studying solved example sequences from which the efficient strategy can be inferred. In the "No Freeze" condition, participants see the same examples but are free to move on to the task immediately. We find that Freeze significantly increases discovery rates, however not uniformly across specifications, and leads to more efficient task performance conditional on discovery. At the same time, given our calibration of time horizon and task difficulty, Freeze does not improve overall performance, as the gains from discovery are insufficient to offset the time spent searching. Conditional on discovery, outcomes are similar between the two conditions, while unsuccessful search reduces the overall output in "Freeze" due to lost time. These results highlight a trade-off between exploration and exploitation: forcing individuals to think before acting can backfire when the probability of discovering a better strategy is low or when too little time remains to exploit the discovery. The talk concludes with follow-up ideas on why individuals fail to search and how to better target efficient exploration.

Motherhood is associated with persistent penalties in both labour market outcomes and health. However, the role of family policies in mitigating these effects, particularly with respect to maternal mental health, remains unclear. This paper examines the impact of extending paternity leave on maternal mental health. Using administrative health records covering all publicly funded births in Catalonia (Spain) between 2006 and 2024, we implement a local difference-in-differences design around the April 1st, 2019 reform, which introduced partially mandatory paternity leave for fathers. The analysis focuses on first time mothers giving birth within a three-month window around the reform cutoff and compares them to a control cohort from 2016. Maternal mental health is measured using diagnoses and prescription records for stress-related, mood-related, and broader mental health conditions drawn from primary care and pharmacy data. We find an increase in stress-related diagnoses and in the use of antidepressants and anxiolytics from the second year after childbirth among mothers exposed to the reform. These effects are concentrated among older mothers (above the median age of 31) and among those who do not have a second child within four years after birth. We find suggestive evidence that these patterns may be related to increased healthcare use and to stress-related mechanisms, including delayed fertility, changes in labour market attachment, and relationship instability. Ongoing work will extend the analysis to additional mental health outcomes and to subsequent paternity leave reforms

In 2025, a survey of 8,000 students and employees at ten Czech universities analysed commuting behaviour using a logit model of mode choice. Public transport dominated (47%), followed by car (32%) and walking or cycling (21%), with higher car use among employees and higher-income respondents. Distance, age (non-linear effect), and children significantly increased the likelihood of car use, particularly beyond 10 km. Differences across universities reflected urban size and topography, with higher public transport shares in large agglomerations. Key barriers to sustainable mobility were habits, distance, and public transport quality, while faster connections, lower costs, improved cycling infrastructure, and limited parking were identified as main drivers of modal shift.