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The Effect of Childcare on Parental Earnings Trajectories

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  • Matthias Krapf
  • Anja Roth
  • Michaela Slotwinski

Abstract

We study the effect of institutional childcare on child penalties. Using Swiss administrative data, we exploit the staggered opening of childcare facilities across municipalities in the canton of Bern. We find that the presence of childcare facilities in the year of birth of the first child reduces the child penalty. The availability of childcare increases maternal earnings and decreases the compensating increase in fathers’ earnings in households with below median earnings, but not in households with above median earnings. Although childcare affects relative earnings contributions within the household, there is no effect on total household earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthias Krapf & Anja Roth & Michaela Slotwinski, 2020. "The Effect of Childcare on Parental Earnings Trajectories," CESifo Working Paper Series 8764, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_8764
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    Cited by:

    1. Katrin Huber & Geske Rolvering, 2023. "Public child care and mothers’ career trajectories," Working Papers 228, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    2. Lalive, Rafael, 2021. "Mothers at Work: How Mandating Paid Maternity Leave Affects Employment, Earnings and Fertility," CEPR Discussion Papers 16418, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Köppl-Turyna, Monika & Bittó, Virág & Graf, Nikolaus, 2022. "Effizienzpotenziale in der Kinderbetreuung in Österreich," Policy Notes 50, EcoAustria – Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Strittmatter, Anthony & Wunsch, Conny, 2021. "The Gender Pay Gap Revisited with Big Data: Do Methodological Choices Matter?," Working papers 2021/05, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    5. Ana Costa-Ramón & Ursina Schaede & Michaela Slotwinski & Anne Ardila Brenoe, 2024. "(Not) Thinking about the Future: Inattention and Maternal Labor Supply," CESifo Working Paper Series 11359, CESifo.
    6. Jessen, Jonas, 2022. "Culture, children and couple gender inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    7. Ulrich Glogowsky & Emanuel Hansen & Dominik Sachs & Holger Lüthen, 2024. "The Evolution of Child-Related Gender Inequality in Germany and The Role of Family Policies, 1960-2018," Economics working papers 2024-08, Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.
    8. Girsberger, Esther Mirjam & Hassani-Nezhad, Lena & Karunanethy, Kalaivani & Lalive, Rafael, 2023. "Mothers at work: How mandating a short maternity leave affects work and fertility," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    9. Selina Gangl & Martin Huber, 2021. "From homemakers to breadwinners? How mandatory kindergarten affects maternal labour market outcomes," Papers 2111.14524, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    10. Gangl, Selina & Huber, Martin, 2021. "From homemakers to breadwinners? How mandatory kindergarten affects maternal labour market attachment," VfS Annual Conference 2019 (Leipzig): 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Democracy and Market Economy 203636, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association, revised 2021.
    11. Huber, Katrin & Rolvering, Geske, 2023. "Public Child Care and Mothers' Career Trajectories," IZA Discussion Papers 16433, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    child penalty; childcare; parental employment; gender wage gap;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General
    • 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
    • H31 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Household

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