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Mothers’ and children’s employment in Europe. A comparative analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriella Berloffa
  • Eleonora Matteazzi
  • Alina Şandor
  • Paola Villa

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis using EU-SILC data of the correlation between mothers’ employment during adolescence and their children’s probability of being workless (i.e. either unemployed or inactive) at about 30 years of age in 19 European countries. By estimating various multilevel logit models, the paper shows that, on average, having had a working mother is associated with a reduction in the probability of being workless of about 25 to 35 percent for daughters and 20 to 25 percent for sons. Cross-country differences in these correlations are much larger for daughters than for sons, in particular for daughters with children, and do not reflect the usual country groupings. Our results suggest that mothers’ employment not only influences preferences for labor market participation, but also some attitudes or skills that favor their children’s successful integration into the labor market. Moreover, the observed correlation between mothers’ employment and their daughters’ labor market outcomes is lower in contexts where the burden of childcare falls more on women, highlighting that the presence of constraints on women’s choices may conceal mothers’ influence on daughters’ preferences.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriella Berloffa & Eleonora Matteazzi & Alina Şandor & Paola Villa, 2019. "Mothers’ and children’s employment in Europe. A comparative analysis," DEM Working Papers 2019/14, Department of Economics and Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:trn:utwprg:2019/14
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    young adults’ worklessness; mothers’ employment; intergenerational correlation; gender norms; Europe;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion
    • D19 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Other

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