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Motherhood and flexible jobs: Evidence from Latin American countries

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  • Inés Berniell
  • Lucila Berniell
  • Dolores de la Mata
  • María Edo
  • Mariana Marchionni

Abstract

We study the causal effect of motherhood on labour market outcomes in Latin America by adopting an event study approach around the birth of the first child based on panel data from national household surveys for Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. Our main contributions are: (i) providing new and comparable evidence on the effects of motherhood on labour outcomes in developing countries; (ii) exploring the possible mechanisms driving these outcomes; (iii) discussing the potential links between child penalty and the prevailing gender norms and family policies in the region.

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  • Inés Berniell & Lucila Berniell & Dolores de la Mata & María Edo & Mariana Marchionni, 2021. "Motherhood and flexible jobs: Evidence from Latin American countries," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-33, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    • Handle: RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2021-33
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    Cited by:

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    2. Martina Querejeta, 2022. "Impact of female peer composition on gender norm perceptions and skills formation in secondary school," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-28, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Serio Monserrat, 2021. "Mujeres emprendedoras en América Latina: Una mirada sobre la influencia del nivel educativo en la probabilidad de emprender," Asociación Argentina de Economía Política: Working Papers 4522, Asociación Argentina de Economía Política.

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    Keywords

    child penalty; event study; female labour supply; Self-employment; Informality; Developing countries; Latin America; Gender norms; Family policy;
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