Economic Incentives, Childcare and Gender Identity Norms

Andrea Ichino, Martin Olsson, Barbara Petrongolo and Peter Skogman Thoursie ()
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Peter Skogman Thoursie: Stockholm University and IFAU

No 1283, Working Paper Series from Research Institute of Industrial Economics

Abstract: This paper investigates the role of gender identity norms in shaping men's and women's time allocation, based on observed behavior following a change in the market penalty for adopting prescriptive norms. To perform this test, we study the reallocation of childcare across parents, following changes in their relative take-home pay. Exploiting variation from Swedish tax reforms, we estimate the elasticity of substitution in parental childcare for natives and immigrants from a variety of countries, characterized by varying gender norms. We find that couples originating from countries with relatively conservative norms are more likely to reallocate childcare across spouses following a reduction in the husband's tax rate, and less likely to reallocate childcare following a reduction in the wife's tax rate, thereby reinforcing a traditional allocation of childcare across parents.

Keywords: Childcare; Gender identity; Gender gaps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D13 H24 J22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2019-06-04, Revised 2021-05-04
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Working Paper: Economic incentives, childcare and gender identity norms (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:1283

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