 The differential effect of childbirth on men's and women's careersNoa de la Vega Labour Economics, 2022, vol. 78, issue C Abstract: This paper studies the impact of first childbirth on parents’ labour supply and life satisfaction as a function of their pre-birth earnings. My contribution is to examine how childbearing differentially affects men and women according to their relative role within the household before childbirth. Using data from Germany and a quasi-experimental approach based on event studies around first childbirth, I find that the negative impact of children on women's labour-market outcomes is significant and persistent regardless of their relative potential earnings before childbirth. In contrast, men tend to increase their earnings and employment rates after childbirth but only in households where women were primary breadwinners pre-birth. I also find that in these households, after childbirth, men invest more time in childcare and less in leisure activities whereas women invest more time in housework relative to men breadwinners households. Correspondingly, both spouses report a decrease in their housework satisfaction while men become dissatisfied with work and leisure. Keywords: Gender roles; Gender gap; Childcare; Childbirth; Job satisfaction; Well-being (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:labeco:v:78:y:2022:i:c:s0927537122001397 DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102249 Access Statistics for this article Labour Economics is currently edited by A. Ichino More articles in Labour Economics from Elsevier |
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