Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/231531 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research No. 1120
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
Abstract: 
Whilst gender inequality has been falling in the developed world, child-related gender inequality in pay has stayed constant. In this paper I use German panel data spanning across 33 years from 1984 until 2017 including over 50,000 individuals. The main contribution of this paper is the analysis of the effect of parenthood on women's and men's earnings using propensity score matching. I estimate the annual average treatment effect of parenthood over the 20 years following the birth of the first child to be -10500€ for women and +6800€ for men. When comparing the percentage loss of potential earnings, I find that women suffer a long-run child penalty of 63% compared to men. I then examine the relationship between the treatment effect and gender norms, willingness to take on risk for your career and priorities regarding job characteristics. There exists evidence which suggests that all of these factors are associated with changes in the individual treatment effects.
Subjects: 
Gender Economics
Child Penalty
Propensity Score Matching
JEL: 
J13
J16
J21
J31
C12
C13
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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