Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/314555 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 17658
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This paper investigates how a change in marital status can influence labour market-related child penalties, by comparing married couples and those whose marriage is dissolved after the birth of their first child. We take advantage of the rich administrative data from New Zealand and show that child penalties vary greatly by civil status: whereas the employment penalty for married mothers is 32%, for mothers who get divorced within seven years of giving birth, it is about 5% and indistinguishable from that facing fathers. The same is true of earnings, indicating that divorced mothers have a much stronger attachment to the labour market than do married mothers. Our section on mechanisms points to differences in economic need as the driver behind the discrepancy in child penalties by marital status.
Subjects: 
child penalty
labour market
marital dissolution
event-study estimates
New Zealand
JEL: 
J13
J16
J22
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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