Does the stork deliver happiness? Parenthood and life satisfaction

Gregori Baetschmann, Kevin Staub and Raphael Studer

No 94, ECON - Working Papers from Department of Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between parenthood and life satisfaction using longitudinal data on women from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Previous studies have focused on satisfaction differences between parents and comparable childless adults, mostly finding small and often negative effects of parenthood. These comparisons of ex-post similar individuals are problematic if a self-selection into motherhood exists. In this study we examine the selection issue in detail by exploiting the extended longitudinal dimension of the panel to track self-reported life satisfaction of women eventually to become mothers and of women eventually attaining a completed fertility of zero. We document that these groups' satisfaction paths diverge around five years before mothers' first birth, even after adjusting for differences in observables. In our estimations, we employ matching and regression techniques which account for this selection into motherhood. We find motherhood to be associated with substantial positive satisfaction gains.

Keywords: Happiness; subjective well-being; children; fertility; mother- hood; parenthood; life cycle; selection; matching; fixed effects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D10 J11 J12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-evo, nep-hap and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Journal Article: Does the stork deliver happiness? Parenthood and life satisfaction (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zur:econwp:094

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