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Work and Family: Marriage, Children, Child Gender and the Work Hours and Earnings of West German Men

Author

Listed:
  • Choi, Hyung-Jai

    (University of Washington)

  • Joesch, Jutta M.

    (affiliation not available)

  • Lundberg, Shelly

    (University of California, Santa Barbara)

Abstract

We find a strong association between family status and labor market outcomes for recent cohorts of West German men in the German Socio-Economic Panel. Living with a partner and living with a child both have substantial positive effects on earnings and work hours. These effects persist in fixed effects models that control for correlation in time-invariant unobservables that affect both family and work outcomes. Child gender also matters – a first son increases fathers' work hours by 100 hours per year more than a first daughter. There is evidence of son "preference" in the probability that a German man is observed to be coresiding with a son or a daughter. Men are more likely to remain in the same household with a male child than a female child and girls are underrepresented in the raw data. Controlling for selective attrition in our labor supply model reveals that men who remain with female children are strongly positively selected (in terms of their work hours) relative to men who remain with male children.

Suggested Citation

  • Choi, Hyung-Jai & Joesch, Jutta M. & Lundberg, Shelly, 2005. "Work and Family: Marriage, Children, Child Gender and the Work Hours and Earnings of West German Men," IZA Discussion Papers 1761, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1761
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Leigh, 2009. "Does child gender affect marital status? Evidence from Australia," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(2), pages 351-366, April.
    2. Lundberg, Shelly, 2005. "Men and islands: Dealing with the family in empirical labor economics," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 591-612, August.
    3. Lundberg, Shelly, 2005. "The Division of Labor by New Parents: Does Child Gender Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 1787, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • 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

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