Does the child penalty strike twice?

Mette Gørtz, Sarah Sander and Almudena Sevilla

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: This paper compares the labor market trajectories of grandparents before and after the arrival of their first grandchild. We find gender gaps in earnings of 4 and 10 percent five and ten years, respectively, after the first grandchild. These effects are driven by changes in women's labor supply at both the intensive and extensive margin. We provide evidence from multiple data sources that grandmothers’ caregiving complements formal daycare, thereby offering essential flexibility for young parents. We document that grandchild penalties were larger in earlier periods characterized by low availability of daycare, shorter parental leave, and an earlier retirement age. Linking register data to geographical variations in daycare centers reveals that local daycare coverage is not associated with grandchild penalties. Detailed time use data show that grandmothers carry larger responsibilities for childcare than grandfathers. Recognizing the complementary nature of grandmaternal childcare is important for the design of policies attempting to reduce child penalties for both mothers and grandmothers.

Keywords: female labor supply; gender; grandchildren; inequality; retirement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J14 J16 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2025-02-28
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-age, nep-dem and nep-gen
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in European Economic Review, 28, February, 2025, 172. ISSN: 0014-2921

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:126874

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