The Motherhood Effect on Earnings amid Declining Fertility

This paper explores how the motherhood effect on earnings evolves amid rising childlessness, using population-wide administrative data from South Korea, where fertility has fallen to the world's lowest level.

Using an event study design, we find that earnings losses after childbirth have increased across recent cohorts of mothers. Evidence suggests that the expansion of parental leave and increasingly positive selection into motherhood - toward women with higher earnings and stronger family preferences - contributed to this trend.

The results indicate that as fertility declines and selection grows more salient, the motherhood effect may persist, even as overall gender earnings gaps narrow.

Date

Venue

Further information