The Career Costs of Children
Abstract
We estimate a dynamic life cycle model of labor supply, fertility, and savings, incorporating occupational choices, with specific wage paths and skill atrophy that vary over the career. This allows us to understand the trade-off between occupational choice and desired fertility, as well as sorting both into the labor market and across occupations. We quantify the life cycle career costs associated with children, how they decompose into loss of skills during interruptions, lost earnings opportunities, and selection into more child-friendly occupations. We analyze the long-run effects of policies that encourage fertility and show that they are considerably smaller than short-run effects.
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Motherhood breaks come with an additional penalty due to forgone experience-related earnings increases and skill depreciation.
“motherhood breaks come with an additional penalty due to forgone experience-related earnings increases (see, e.g., Caucutt et al. 2002, Adda et al. 2017) and skill depreciation (Mincer & Ofek 1982, Blackburn et al. 1993).”
From Fertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences (2024) · cites this paper as Adda et al. 2017
Cites
The Skill Content of Recent Technological Change: An Empirical Exploration
Autor, D. H., Levy, F., & Murnane, R. J. (2003) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1162/003355303322552801 · Cited by 6,205 · see citing works
Shadow Prices, Market Wages, and Labor Supply
Heckman, J. (1974) · Econometrica · doi:10.2307/1913937 · Cited by 1,852 · see citing works
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Children and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Denmark
Kleven, H., Landais, C., & Søgaard, J. E. (2019) · American Economic Journal: Applied Economics · doi:10.1257/app.20180010 · Cited by 1,064 · see citing works
Fertility in High-Income Countries: Trends, Patterns, Determinants, and Consequences
Bloom, D. E., Kuhn, M., & Prettner, K. (2024) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev-economics-081523-013750 · Cited by 42 · see citing works
The gender wage gap: evidence from South Korea
Lee, K. (2022) · IZA Journal of Labor Economics · doi:10.2478/izajole-2022-0005 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
- Authors
- Adda, J., Dustmann, C., & Stevens, K.
- Affiliations
- Bocconi University (IT)
- University College London (GB)
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- Venue
- Journal of Political Economy
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2017-04
- Volume
- 125
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 293-337
- ISSN
- 0022-3808 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-534X
- OpenAlex
- W2099552890
- Cited by
- 467
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 49 · 2025: 70 · 2024: 65 · 2023: 52 · 2022: 54 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 35 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 61.56
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Political Economy (publishedVersion)
- Archivio istituzionale della Ricerca - Bocconi (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Labor market dynamics and wage inequality
- Social Sciences › Demography › Family Dynamics and Relationships
- Keywords
- fertility, labor supply, career choice, skill atrophy, life-cycle model, fertility policy, earnings losses, labor market sorting
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