Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/58783 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6201
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper analyzes the life-cycle career costs associated with child rearing and decomposes their effects into unearned wages (as women drop out of the labor market), loss of human capital, and selection into more child-friendly occupations. We estimate a dynamic life-cycle model of fertility, occupational choice, and labor supply using detailed survey and administrative data for Germany for numerous birth cohorts across different regions. We use this model to analyze both the male-female wage gap as it evolves from labor market entry onward and the effect of pro-fertility policies. We show that a substantial portion of the gender wage gap is explainable by realized and expected fertility and that the long-run effect of policies encouraging fertility are considerably lower than the short-run effects typically estimated in the literature.
Subjects: 
fertility
labor supply
occupational choice
JEL: 
J1
J2
J31
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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