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Worker-firm matching and the parenthood pay gap: Evidence from linked employer-employee data

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  • Lionel Wilner

    (CREST-ENSAE)

Abstract

The parenthood pay gap is not fully explained by human capital depreciation and unobserved heterogeneity. Endogenous worker-firm matching could also account for such wage differences. This hypothesis is tested thanks to linked employer-employee data on the French private sector between 1995 and 2011. Childbirth penalties are estimated for women and for men from hourly wage equations including firm- and worker-fixed effects on top of usual measures of human capital. Though worker-firm matching explains none of the motherhood wage penalty, it plays a role in the case of fathers who do not experience any wage loss after childbirth, but do not enjoy any premium either; there is evidence of an erosion of this premium since the end of the 1990s. In a counterfactual where women do not incur any penalty after childbirth, the gender gap still amounts to 2/3 of the one that currently prevails.

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  • Lionel Wilner, 2016. "Worker-firm matching and the parenthood pay gap: Evidence from linked employer-employee data," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 29(4), pages 991-1023, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:29:y:2016:i:4:d:10.1007_s00148-016-0597-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s00148-016-0597-9
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    Cited by:

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    2. Alessandra Casarico & Salvatore Lattanzio, 2023. "Behind the child penalty: understanding what contributes to the labour market costs of motherhood," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(3), pages 1489-1511, July.
    3. Pierre-Jean Messe & Jeremy Tanguy, 2022. "Does gender equality bargaining reduce child penalty? Evidence from France," TEPP Working Paper 2022-19, TEPP.
    4. Elise Coudin & Sophie Maillard & Maxime Tô, 2018. "Family, Firms and the Gender Wage Gap in France," Working Papers 2018-09, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.
    5. Lucifora, Claudio & Meurs, Dominique & Villar, Elena, 2021. "The “mommy track” in the workplace. Evidence from a large French firm," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Lisa Meehan & Gail Pacheco & Thomas Schober, 2023. "Basic Reading and Mathematics Skills and the Labour Market Outcomes of Young People: Evidence from PISA and Linked Administrative Data," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 99(327), pages 473-491, December.
    7. Nieto, Adrián, 2021. "Native-immigrant differences in the effect of children on the gender pay gap," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 654-680.
    8. Bruno Rodrigues & Vincent Vergnat, 2019. "The time and the transitions back to work in France after maternity," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 861-888, September.
    9. Dominique Meurs & Elena Vilar & Claudio Lucifora, 2019. "Having a child? Here is the bill - Parenthood, Earnings and Careers in an Internal Labor," Working Papers hal-04141921, HAL.
    10. Pierre Pora, 2020. "Keep Working and Spend Less? Collective Childcare and Parental Earnings in France," Working Papers hal-04159681, HAL.
    11. Rosenbaum, Philip, 2020. "Does early childbearing matter? New approach using Danish register data," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Tjasa Bartolj & Nika Murovec & Saso Polanec, 2022. "Reported time allocation and emotional exhaustion during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Slovenia," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 33(1), pages 117-137, March.
    13. Filip Pertold & Sofiana Sinani & Michal Šoltés, 2023. "Gender Gap in Reported Childcare Preferences among Parents," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp770, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    High dimensional fixed effects; Worker-firm matching; Parenthood pay gap; Gender inequalities; Linked employer-employee data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials

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