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Child Penalty Estimation and Mothers' Age at First Birth

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  • Melentyeva, Valentina

    (Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management)

  • Riedel, Lukas

Abstract

We show that the widespread approach to estimate the career costs of motherhood – so-called “child penalties†– is prone to produce biased results, as it pools first-time mothers of all ages without accounting for their differences in characteristics and outcomes. We propose a novel method building on the recent advances in the difference-in-differences literature to address this issue. Applied to German administrative data, our method yields 30 percent larger post-birth earnings losses than the conventional approach. We document meaningful effect heterogeneity by maternal age in both magnitude and interpretation, highlighting its key role in understanding the impact of motherhood.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Melentyeva, Valentina & Riedel, Lukas, 2025. "Child Penalty Estimation and Mothers' Age at First Birth," Other publications TiSEM de0af785-4ad9-4019-a9d6-b, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    • Handle: RePEc:tiu:tiutis:de0af785-4ad9-4019-a9d6-bf6e9dfe4410
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    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
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

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