New Estimates of Mothers’ Forgone Earnings Using HILDA Data

Trevor Breusch () and Edith Gray
Additional contact information
Edith Gray: Australian National University

Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), 2004, vol. 7, issue 2, 125-150

Abstract: Women who have children miss out on potential earnings. This happens through a combination of time out of the labour force, reduced working hours and lower paying jobs. We examine mothers' forgone earnings using HILDA 2001 data and find substantial effects, which vary with the woman's education and number of children. At a middle level of education (completed year 12 only), women forgo around 31 per cent of lifetime potential income for a first child, an additional 13 per cent for a second child, and a further 9 per cent for a third child. More highly educated women lose less proportionally than the less educated, although their dollar amounts of forgone earnings are higher. There is evidence, in comparison with previous studies, that the proportions forgone are falling with time, but more clearly so for women with higher education. We also find that women who delay motherhood maintain slightly more earnings than early childbearers.

Keywords: Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure Time Allocation and Labour supply Value of Life; Foregone Income (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J12 J17 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://ftprepec.drivehq.com/ozl/journl/downloads/AJLE072breusch.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ozl:journl:v:7:y:2004:i:2:p:125-150

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE) from Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sandie Rawnsley ().