Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/327715 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 12105
Publisher: 
Munich Society for the Promotion of Economic Research - CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
We provide the first causal evidence that changes to work arrangements – in the form of greater schedule regularity – can reduce the child penalty in earnings for women. The Australian 2009 Fair Work Act explicitly entitled parents of young children to request a change in work arrangements. Leveraging variation in the timing of the law, timing of childbirth, and the bite of the law across different occupations and industries, we establish three main results. First, new mothers used the Fair Work Act to maintain a regular schedule while reducing hours upon childbirth. Second, thanks to increased regularity, working mothers' child penalty declined from a 47 to a 38 percent drop in hours worked. Third, while this increase in maternal labor supply implies a significant shift towards equality in the female- and male-shares of household income, we do not observe any changes in the female share of home production.
Subjects: 
child penalty
work arrangements
division of home production
JEL: 
J16
J22
J18
J81
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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