Title

The Child Penalty Atlas

Author(s)

Henrik Kleven Henrik Kleven (Princeton University, NBER, and CEPR)

Camille Landais Camille Landais (London School of Economics and CEPR)

Gabriel Leite-Mariante Gabriel Leite-Mariante (London School of Economics)

Abstract

This paper builds a world atlas of child penalties in employment based on micro data from 134 countries. The estimation of child penalties is based on pseudo-event studies of first child birth using cross-sectional data. The pseudo-event studies are validated against true event studies using panel data for a subset of countries. Most countries display clear and sizable child penalties: men and women follow parallel trends before parenthood, but diverge sharply and persistently after parenthood. While this pattern is pervasive, there is enormous variation in the magnitude of the effects across different regions of the world. The fraction of gender inequality explained by child penalties varies systematically with economic development and proxies for structural transformation. At low levels of development, child penalties represent a minuscule fraction of gender inequality. But as economies develop — incomes rise and the labor market transitions from subsistence agriculture towards salaried work in industry and services — child penalties take over as the dominant driver of gender inequality. Because parenthood is often tied to marriage, we also investigate the existence of marriage penalties in female employment. In general, women experience both marriage and child penalties, but their relative importance depends on economic development. The development process is associated with a substitution from marriage penalties to child penalties, with the former gradually converging to zero.

Creation Date

2023-08

Section URL ID

Paper Number

2023-16

URL

https://www.henrikkleven.com/uploads/3/7/3/1/37310663/child_penalty_atlas_aug2023.pdf

File Function

Jel

E24

Keyword(s)

Child Penalties

Suppress

false

Series

13