Children and gender inequality: evidence from Finland
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Author
Date
2019
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Economics
Language
en
Pages
44 + 14
Series
Abstract
This thesis studies the impact of the arrival of the first child on the labor market outcomes of women and men in Finland. Using Finnish registry data from 1988-2015 on parents who had their first child between 1993-2005 and an event study method I show that the impact of children on women is negative, large and persistent while men are almost completely unaffected. Up to five years before the birth of the first child there is little difference in labor market outcomes of men and women, but one year after the birth of women's' annual labor earnings drop by 61 %, total annual income by 30 % and participation rate by 26 % compared to year before the birth. The child penalty, the percentage by which women fall behind men due to children, in annual labor earnings after ten years equals to 21 %, 10.4 % for participation rate and 16.9 % for total annual income. The child penalties are persistent for all three outcomes even 20 years after the birth. When comparing men with and without children there is no visible difference in the development of labor market outcomes but women with children experience a significant drop in earnings and participation rate compared to women without children.Description
Thesis advisor
Huttunen, KristiinaKeywords
economics, wage gap, gender wage gap, Finland, children
