IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/may/mayecw/n315-22.pdf.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Dynamics of the Gender Earnings Gap for College Educated Workers: The Child Earnings Penalty, Job Mobility, and Field of Study

Author

Listed:
  • Aedin Doris

    (Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, Maynooth University.)

  • Donal O'Neill

    (Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, Maynooth University.)

  • Olive Sweetman

    (Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting, Maynooth University.)

Abstract

TThis paper uses a rich set of administrative data to examine the dynamics of the gender earnings gap for college graduates from 2010-2020 in Ireland. We focus on the dynamics of the gap in the first 10 years of the working career, what this looks like, what determines it and what can explain the patterns. We examine the extent to which changes in job mobility after childbirth can explain the dynamics of the gender earnings gap across fields of study. Our findings suggest that the fact that men experience much higher earnings gains than women, particularly within jobs, is the key driver behind the observed earnings divergence. This is particularly evident among women who have studied Business or Law in University. Changes in job mobility after childbirth are not a major contributor to the divergence in earnings but analysis of household survey data suggests that reductions in hours of work following childbirth explains approximately 60% of the initial decline in female weekly earnings and much of the male-female earnings gap in the years after childbirth.

Suggested Citation

  • Aedin Doris & Donal O'Neill & Olive Sweetman, 2022. "The Dynamics of the Gender Earnings Gap for College Educated Workers: The Child Earnings Penalty, Job Mobility, and Field of Study," Economics Department Working Paper Series n315-22.pdf, Department of Economics, National University of Ireland - Maynooth.
    • Handle: RePEc:may:mayecw:n315-22.pdf
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.maynoothuniversity.ie/mayecw-files/N315-22.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2019. "Children and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Denmark," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 181-209, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hingre, Garance & Russell, Helen & McGinnity, Frances & Smyth, Emer, 2024. "Gender and labour market inclusion on the island of Ireland," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number RS176.
    2. Delaney, Judith M. & Devereux, Paul J., 2024. "Gender Differences in Graduate Degree Choices," IZA Discussion Papers 16918, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Doorley, Karina & Tuda, Dora & Duggan, Luke, 2023. "Will Childcare Subsidies Increase the Labour Supply of Mothers in Ireland?," IZA Discussion Papers 16178, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katrin Huber & Geske Rolvering, 2023. "Public child care and mothers’ career trajectories," Working Papers 228, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    2. Amano-Patiño, N. & Baron, T. & Xiao, P., 2020. "Human Capital Accumulation, Equilibrium Wage-Setting and the Life-Cycle Gender Pay Gap," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2010, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    3. Anne Ardila Brenøe & Ulf Zölitz, 2020. "Exposure to More Female Peers Widens the Gender Gap in STEM Participation," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(4), pages 1009-1054.
    4. Claudia Hupkau & Barbara Petrongolo, 2020. "Work, Care and Gender during the COVID‐19 Crisis," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(3), pages 623-651, September.
    5. Anna Bindler & Nadine Ketel, 2022. "Scaring or Scarring? Labor Market Effects of Criminal Victimization," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(4), pages 939-970.
    6. Agnès Charpin & Josep Amer-Mestre & Noémi Berlin & Magali Dumontet, 2024. "Gender Differences in Early Occupational Choices: Evidence from Medical Specialty Selection," Working Papers hal-04455212, HAL.
    7. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2021. "Does Biology Drive Child Penalties? Evidence from Biological and Adoptive Families," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 183-198, June.
    8. Derek T. Tharp & Elizabeth J. Parks-Stamm, 2021. "Gender Differences in the Intended Use of Parental Leave: Implications for Human Capital Development," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 47-60, March.
    9. Deng, Yue & Zhou, Yuqian & Hu, Dezhuang, 2023. "Grandparental childcare and female labor market behaviors: Evidence from China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    10. Albanesi, Stefania & Olivetti, Claudia & Petrongolo, Barbara, 2022. "Families, labor markets and policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118038, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Barigozzi, Francesca & Cremer, Helmuth & Roeder, Kerstin, 2020. "Having it all, for all: Child-care subsidies and income distribution reconciled," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 188-211.
    12. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Johanna Posch & Andreas Steinhauser & Josef Zweimüller, 2021. "Angebot an öffentlicher Kinderbetreuung und Einkommenseinbußen bei Mutterschaft," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 47(3), pages 309-328.
    13. Julian Pedrazzi & Leonardo Peñaloza-Pacheco, 2021. "Heterogeneous Effects of Forced Migration on Female Labor Supply," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0274, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.
    14. Francisco Gallego & Jeanne Lafortune, 2023. "Baby commodity booms? The impact of commodity shocks on fertility decisions and outcomes," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(1), pages 295-320, January.
    15. Gordon B Dahl & Christina Felfe & Paul Frijters & Helmut Rainer, 2022. "Caught between Cultures: Unintended Consequences of Improving Opportunity for Immigrant Girls," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(5), pages 2491-2528.
    16. Hennig, Jan-Luca & Stadler, Balazs, 2021. "Firm-specific pay premiums and the gender wage gap in 21 European countries," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242354, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. Petri Böckerman & Mika Haapanen & Christopher Jepsen, 2021. "Dark Passage: Mental Health Consequences of Parental Death," CESifo Working Paper Series 9099, CESifo.
    18. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn & Matthew Comey & Amanda Eng & Pamela Meyerhofer & Alexander Willén, 2020. "Culture and gender allocation of tasks: source country characteristics and the division of non-market work among US immigrants," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 907-958, December.
    19. Hanno Foerster, 2019. "The Impact of Post-Marital Maintenance on Dynamic Decisions and Welfare of Couples," Boston College Working Papers in Economics 982, Boston College Department of Economics.
    20. Adamus, Magdalena & Mikušková, Eva Ballová, 2020. "Gender-based wage discrimination and the backlash effect in recruitment and dismissal processes Experimental evidence from Slovakia," OSF Preprints 4y6uc, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:may:mayecw:n315-22.pdf. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/demayie.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.