Does biology drive child penalties? Evidence from biological and adoptive families
Kleven, H. J., Landais, C.
& Søgaard, J. E.
(2021).
Does biology drive child penalties? Evidence from biological and adoptive families.
American Economic Review: Insights,
3(2), 183 - 198.
https://doi.org/10.1257/aeri.20200260
& Søgaard, J. E.
(2021).
Does biology drive child penalties? Evidence from biological and adoptive families.
American Economic Review: Insights,
3(2), 183 - 198.
https://doi.org/10.1257/aeri.20200260
This paper investigates whether the impact of children on the labor market outcomes of women relative to men—child penalties—can be explained by the biological links between mother and child. We estimate child penalties in biological and adoptive families using event studies around the arrival of children and almost 40 years of adoption data from Denmark. Short-run child penalties are slightly larger for biological mothers than for adoptive mothers, but their long-run child penalties are virtually identical and precisely estimated. This suggests that biology is not a key driver of child-related gender gaps.
Explore Further
- J12 - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
- J13 - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
- J16 - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
-
Landais, C., J. Kleven, H. & Egholt Søgaard, J.
(2021).
Codes for: Does Biology Drive Child Penalties? Evidence from Biological and Adoptive Families.
[Dataset]. OpenICPSR.
https://doi.org/10.3886/e120831