How Institutions and Local Contexts Shape the Child Penalty: Evidence from Italy’s Public and Private Sectors

Paola Biasi () and Maria De Paola ()
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Paola Biasi: Italian National Institute of Social Security
Maria De Paola: University of Calabria

No 18448, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: This paper examines the labor market consequences of motherhood in Italy, focusing on how institutional and local contexts shape the child penalty. Using INPS administrative data, we track mothers in the public and private sectors from three years before to five years after their first child’s birth. Employing an event-study framework with individual fixed effects, we estimate labor market exit probabilities and earnings losses by sector. Mothers face substantial, persistent penalties, much larger in the private sector, particularly regarding employment exits. Local conditions, childcare availability, unemployment rates, and gender norms, affect these outcomes mainly on the extensive margin, while earnings losses for those who remain employed are less sensitive. These contextual effects are strongest in the private sector, while public sector mothers are largely insulated from local factors.

Keywords: child penalty; public sector; private sector; event study; economic conditions; childcare availability; gender norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J18 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18448

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