Child Penalties across Countries: Evidence and Explanations

Abstract

This paper provides evidence on child penalties in female and male earnings in different countries. The estimates are based on event studies around the birth of the first child, using the specification proposed by Kleven et al. (2018). The analysis reveals some striking similarities in the qualitative effects of children across countries, but also sharp differences in the magnitude of the effects. We discuss the potential role of family policies (parental leave and childcare provision) and gender norms in explaining the observed differences.

Economic Incentives, Home Production and Gender Identity Norms

“…Although this is only one component of the entire set of home duties that spouses typically share, it is a good proxy for the gender division of household work, it is measured precisely on data normally unavailable for other countries, and can be linked to earnings and taxes. Third, while Sweden has one of the highest female employment rates and among OECD countries, as well as relatively strong attitudes in favor of gender equality (Olivetti and Petrongolo, 2017), previous work has found evidence of glass ceiling effects (Breen and Garcia-Penalosa, 2002;Albrecht et al, 2003Albrecht et al, , 2015, large motherhood penalties (Angelov et al, 2016;Kleven et al, 2019), and higher divorce rates for women who enter politics . These pieces of evidence may suggest important heterogeneities in the type and strength of gender norms 7 Our results are generally robust to other choices, such as adding 0.1 or 0.5 before taking logs.…”

“…This is given by TPL, which either parent can use to care for a sick child aged between 8 months and 12 years during their regular working hours. While representing only a portion of overall home production, TPL take-up is directly linked to parenthood and work-life balance considerations, which are one key driver of the gender earnings gap (Kleven et al, 2018(Kleven et al, , 2019. By linking administrative information on TPL spells to survey based information on time use from the 2000 Level of Living Survey (LNU), Eriksson and Nermo (2010) show that fathers' share of TPL is positively correlated to their share of total home production.…”

Motherhood and flexible jobs: Evidence from Latin American countries

“…In fact, Kleven et al (2019a) show that while motherhood explained 40 per cent of the gender gap in income and wages in Denmark in 1980, in 2017 almost 80 per cent of this gap can be attributed to the presence of children at home. Several studies have recently assessed the causal effect of the arrival of children on the work trajectories of women in developed countries (e.g., Angelov et al 2016;Kleven et al 2019aKleven et al , 2019bKleven et al , 2020aKuziemko et al 2018;Berniell et al 2020), but evidence for developing countries is still scarce. The effects of motherhood in developing countries may be different from those of developed countries for several reasons.…”

Denial of gender discrimination is associated with better subjective well‐being among women: A system justification account

“…For instance, when the demographic of an occupation shifts from predominantly male to female, the average salary for that occupation declines; the reverse is true when the shift is from predominantly female to male (Levanon, England, & Allison, 2009). Further, although parenthood is seen as a moral imperative for both men and women (Ashburn-Nardo, 2016;Suppes, 2020), women (but not men) suffer (often severe) economic penalties for having a child, which persist throughout their career (Kleven, Landais, Posch, Steinhauer, & Zweimüller, 2019).…”