Globalization, Gender, and the Family

Wolfgang Keller and Hale Utar

No 13317, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper shows that in the presence of labor market shocks, child-bearing and child-rearing have farreaching implications for gender inequality, household specialization and family structure. Using population register data on all births, marriages, and divorces together with employer-employee linked data for Denmark, we show that reduced labor market opportunities due to Chinese import competition lead to a move towards family, with higher rates of fertility, parental leave, and marriage, as well as lower rates of divorce. This move is driven by women, not men. We document substantial long-run earnings losses concentrated on women, and gender inequality increases. The gender-specific effects are due to a woman’s ability to give birth during a fixed period of life–her biological clock. Women have a higher reservation value for staying in the labor market when young, and a negative trade shock induces women to substitute more to family activities than men. High-earning women in their late 30s contribute strongly to the gender difference in fertility because switching to new comparable employment would require high initial commitment which is incompatible with having a newborn in the short time remaining on the biological clock. There is no gender difference (1) for workers past their fertile age, (2) in the size of the negative labor shock, and (3) due to occupational composition since we exploit within-worker variation. Despite lower labor earnings, positive family responses in Denmark are also sustained by insurance payments and government transfers so that workers can afford the shift to family.

Keywords: Fertility; Earnings inequality; Marriage; Divorce; Import competition; Gender gap (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F16 F66 J12 J13 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gen and nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Globalization, Gender, and the Family (2022)
Working Paper: Globalization, Gender, and the Family (2019)
Working Paper: Globalization, Gender, and the Family (2018)
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