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Grewenig, Elisabeth, Philipp Lergetporer & Katharina Werner (2020): Gender Norms and Labor-Supply Expectations: Experimental Evidence from Adolescents. (Discussion paper / Rationality & Competition, CCR TRR 190 259), München ; Berlin, 75 S.

Abstract

"Gender gaps in labor-market outcomes often emerge with the arrival of the first child. We investigate a causal link between gender norms and labor-supply expectations within a survey experiment among 2,000 German adolescents. Using a hypothetical scenario, we document that the majority of girls expects to work 20 hours or less per week when having a young child, and expects from their partner to work 30 hours or more. Randomized treatments that highlight the existing traditional norm towards mothers significantly reduce girls' self-expected labor supply and thereby increase the expected gender difference in labor supply between their partners and themselves (the expected within-family gender gap). Treatment effects persist in a follow-up survey two weeks later, and extend to incentivized outcomes. In a second experiment, we highlight another, more gender-egalitarian, norm towards shared household responsibilities and show that this attenuates the expected within-family gender gap. Our results suggest that social norms play an important role in shaping gender gaps in labor-market outcomes around child birth." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kim, Younga & Ester Rizzi (2020): Who does not intend to retire? Mothers' opportunity costs and compensation at later ages in Europe. In: Ageing and society, Jg. 40, H. 10, S. 2128-2154. DOI:10.1017/S0144686X19000503

Abstract

"Research investigating the association between women's work - family trajectories and their retirement intentions is limited. Studies considering how different institutional conditions affect this association are even more limited. To fill this gap, we use the first three waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe, 2004 - 2009, and apply two-level random effects models with country-level fixed effects to a sample of mothers aged 50 - 64 years. Our dependent variable is the intention to retire as early as possible. We found that the following two different mechanisms are associated with mothers' early retirement intentions: (a) strategies to compensate for opportunity costs and (b) work attachment. When all other factors are equal, mothers with a work career characterised by interruptions and part-time work intend to work longer than other mothers, indicating the need to compensate for lower lifelong earnings at older ages. Some compensatory strategies are also observed among mothers who are classified as 'never married', 'divorced' or 'widowed', who wish to continue their careers. In other cases, evidence supporting work attachment mechanisms is found; for instance, working when the youngest child is younger than six years predicts the intention to delay retirement. These results change according to the welfare regime, underlining the importance of family policies and pension benefits to counterbalance the effect of opportunity costs on mothers' earnings." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Lang, Volker & Martin Groß (2020): The just gender pay gap in Germany revisited: The male breadwinner model and regional differences in gender-specific role ascriptions. In: Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Jg. 65. DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100473

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McMunn, Anne, Lauren Bird, Elizabeth Webb & Amanda Sacker (2020): Gender divisions of paid and unpaid work in contemporary UK couples. In: Work, employment and society, Jg. 34, H. 2, S. 155-173. DOI:10.1177/0950017019862153

Abstract

"This article uses data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study to describe how contemporary British couples divide a range of work types. Our findings support the hypothesis, suggested by previous authors, that a shared egalitarian ideology is required for gender equality in divisions of work. In response to bargaining theories, the article also hypothesises that differentials in educational attainment within couples are more strongly associated with gender divisions of work when a couple's gender ideology is in conflict. Interaction analysis does not support this hypothesis." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Brinton, Mary C. & Eunsil Oh (2019): Babies, work, or both? Highly educated women's employment and fertility in East Asia. In: American Journal of Sociology, Jg. 125, H. 1, S. 105-140. DOI:10.1086/704369

Abstract

"Highly educated women's likelihood of combining childrearing with continuous employment over the life course has increased among recent U.S. cohorts. This trend is less evident in many postindustrial countries characterized by very low fertility. Among such countries, Japan and Korea have exceptionally low proportions of women who remain employed after having children, despite aggressive government policies designed to encourage this. We draw on over 160 in-depth interviews with highly educated Japanese and Korean men and women of childbearing age to uncover the central incompatibilities between married women's employment and childrearing. Individuals' narratives reveal how labor market structure and workplace norms contribute to a highly gendered household division of labor, leading many married women to either forsake employment or to consider having only one child." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Cao, Yuan (2019): Fertility and labor supply: evidence from the One-Child Policy in China. In: Applied Economics, Jg. 51, H. 9, S. 889-910. DOI:10.1080/00036846.2018.1502868

Abstract

"This study provides new evidence on on the causal effect of fertility on maternal labor supply in rural China, using the fact that in some parts of rural China couples are allowed to have a second child if their firstborn is female. Estimates show that a second child reduces maternal labor force participation by 4.6 percentage points, labor supply intensity (hours worked conditional on employment) by 1.4 h per week and monthly income by 54.5 Chinese Yuan (18.7 percent). Further, the labor supply of mothers whose husbands are rural-to-urban migrants is the most sensitive to having an additional child, likely because they have more difficulty balancing farming and childcare. Conversely, labor supply is not reduced by fertility for mothers living in three-generation families, most likely because grandparents can provide both time and money to help with childcare." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Conroy, Tessa (2019): The kids are alright: working women, schedule flexibility and childcare. In: Regional Studies. Journal of the Regional Studies Association, Jg. 53, H. 2, S. 261-271. DOI:10.1080/00343404.2018.1462478

Abstract

"This paper tests the effects of children and childcare on women's employment and entrepreneurial outcomes at the county level for the United States. Given that policies and economic development strategies are often implemented across local and regional jurisdictions, this regional study contributes to the literature by considering access to childcare in relation to locally aggregated female labour market outcomes by sector. The results, which address potential endogeneity, indicate that young children and childcare affect female employment differently depending on the sector. The results are consistent with women choosing the public sector and self-employment over the private sector to accommodate the demands of childrearing." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Foster, Gigi & Leslie S. Stratton (2019): What women want (their men to do): Housework and Satisfaction in Australian Households. In: Feminist economics, Jg. 25, H. 3, S. 23-47. DOI:10.1080/13545701.2019.1609692

Abstract

"The time allocated to household chores is substantial, with the burden falling disproportionately upon women. Social norms about how much housework men and women should do are likely to influence couples' housework allocation decisions and satisfaction. Using Australian data spanning 2001 - 14, this study employs a two-stage estimation procedure to examine how deviations from housework norms relate to couples' satisfaction. The study finds that satisfaction is negatively affected by predicted housework time and that women's satisfaction, but not men's, is robustly affected by their partners' residual housework time. When he exceeds housework norms, she is happier with housework allocations, but less happy in broader dimensions. The study suggests several reasons for the results, including that housework is more salient in women's lives than in men's, that housework generally is not a preferred activity, and that some degree of gender-norm conformity in regard to housework can positively affect women's life satisfaction." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Giménez-Nadal, J. Ignacio, Lucia Mangiavacchi & Luca Piccoli (2019): Keeping inequality at home: The genesis of gender roles in housework. In: Labour economics, Jg. 58, H. June, S. 52-68. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2019.03.006

Abstract

"This article studies how gender role attitudes are transmitted from parents to their children by examining the intrahousehold division of housework time. The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) is used to analyse the time devoted by parents to housework during their children's late childhood or adolescence and that of the same children once they marry. The results suggest that a greater proportion of housework performed by mothers during childhood is related to a persistence in gender inequality in their children's future families. These gender norms are perpetuated directly to sons through a lower amount of housework performed and indirectly to daughters through the choice of a partner that replicates her father role model. An analysis of the possible transmission mechanisms proposed by the literature suggests a prominent role of the parental role model, according to which children tend to reproduce the situation they experienced during childhood. These findings shed light on the persistence of parental behaviour across generations, underlining the key role of fathers, and contribute to the debate about how gender inequality is transmitted over time." (Author's abstract, © 2019 Elsevier) ((en))

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Köppen, Katja & Heike Trappe (2019): The gendered division of labor and its perceived fairness. Implications for childbearing in Germany. In: Demographic Research, Jg. 40, S. 1413-1440. DOI:10.4054/DemRes.2019.40.48

Abstract

"Background: Recently it has been claimed that gender equality and gender equity in the family tend to increase fertility. The strength of this association, however, depends on prevailing gender relations and the level of social support of employment and family within a society.
Objective: We wish to improve our understanding of the relationship between gender equality, gender equity, and fertility by investigating the impact of the actual division of paid and unpaid labor on first- and second-birth fertility in Germany while including in our analyses a repeatedly measured indicator of gender equity that captures the subjective perception of fairness of this division.
Methods: Using nine waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam), we apply discrete-time logistic regression models to cohorts of young women and men in coresidential unions to determine whether a birth occurs in a given year while using measures of gender equality and gender equity as lagged time-varying covariates.
Results: We find that an arrangement in which the woman is in charge of routine housework and the division of paid and unpaid work is perceived as fair is positively associated with family formation. The perception of a fair division of work is no prerequisite for continued childbearing. Yet women's responsibility for domestic work facilitates family extension.
Contribution: This paper extends the literature on the relationship between gender equality, gender equity, and family outcomes by using prospective panel data to capture attitudinal and behavioral changes over the life course more fully than has previously been done." (Author's abstract, © Max-Planck-Institut für demographische Forschung) ((en))

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Manchester, Colleen Flaherty, Lisa M. Leslie & Patricia C. Dahm (2019): Bringing home the bacon: The relationships among breadwinner role, performance, and pay. In: Industrial relations, Jg. 58, H. 1, S. 46-85. DOI:10.1111/irel.12225

Abstract

"We evaluate the relationships among breadwinner role, performance, and pay. Differences in pay are present despite limited differences in performance. We find a pay premium for primary-breadwinner employees across gender, yet a pay penalty for secondary-breadwinners employees only for women, suggesting an asymmetric relationship among breadwinner role, gender, and pay." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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McGinn, Kathleen L., Mayra Ruiz Castro & Elizabeth Long Lingo (2019): Learning from mum: Cross-national evidence linking maternal employment and adult children's outcomes. In: Work, employment and society, Jg. 33, H. 3, S. 374-400. DOI:10.1177/0950017018760167

Abstract

"Analyses relying on two international surveys from over 100,000 men and women across 29 countries explore the relationship between maternal employment and adult daughters' and sons' employment and domestic outcomes. In the employment sphere, adult daughters, but not sons, of employed mothers are more likely to be employed and, if employed, are more likely to hold supervisory responsibility, work more hours and earn higher incomes than their peers whose mothers were not employed. In the domestic sphere, sons raised by employed mothers spend more time caring for family members and daughters spend less time on housework. Analyses provide evidence for two mechanisms: gender attitudes and social learning. Finally, findings show contextual influences at the family and societal levels: family-of-origin social class moderates effects of maternal employment and childhood exposure to female employment within society can substitute for the influence of maternal employment on daughters and reinforce its influence on sons." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Nikolova, Milena & Sinem H. Ayhan (2019): Your spouse is fired! How much do you care? In: Journal of Population Economics, Jg. 32, H. 3, S. 799-844. DOI:10.1007/s00148-018-0693-0

Abstract

"This study is the first to provide a causal estimate of the cross-spouse subjective well-being consequences of unemployment. Using German panel data on married and cohabiting partners for 1991–2015 and information on exogenous unemployment entry due to workplace closure, we show that one spouse’s unemployment experience reduces the life satisfaction of the other partner. The estimated spillover is at least one quarter of the effect of own unemployment and is equally pronounced among female and male partners. In addition, while wives’ life satisfaction does not recover even two years after their partners becoming unemployed, husbands only react to their wives’ joblessness during the first year of unemployment. Our results are insensitive to income controls and the couple’s position in the income distribution, thus reflecting the non-pecuniary costs of unemployment. Although the income loss hardly explains the negative spillover effects of unemployment on spousal life satisfaction, we document large declines in spousal satisfaction with household income and living standards. This finding supports the argument that the costs of unemployment borne by indirectly affected spouses extend beyond the loss of consumption opportunities and might be rather related to social values attached to market work. Being robust to a battery of sensitivity checks, our findings imply that public policy programs aimed at mitigating unemployment’s negative consequences need to target not only those directly affected but also cohabiting spouses." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Samtleben, Claire, Clara Schäper & Katharina Wrohlich (2019): Elterngeld und Elterngeld Plus. Nutzung durch Väter gestiegen, Aufteilung zwischen Müttern und Vätern aber noch sehr ungleich. In: DIW-Wochenbericht, Jg. 86, H. 35, S. 607-613.

Abstract

"Seit Einführung des Elterngeldes im Jahr 2007 gehen - ausgehend von einem extrem niedrigen Niveau - immer mehr Väter in Elternzeit. Im Vergleich zu Müttern ist das jedoch nach wie vor deutlich seltener der Fall und wenn, dann ist der Umfang der Elternzeit bei Vätern relativ kurz. Seit im Jahr 2015 das Elterngeld Plus eingeführt wurde, kombinieren zwar mehr Mütter und auch Väter die Elternzeit mit einer Teilzeiterwerbstätigkeit - der absolute Anteil von Vätern, die Elternzeit nehmen, ist zumindest kurzfristig aber nicht weiter gestiegen. Als wichtigstes Motiv gegen den Bezug von Elterngeld werden von Vätern finanzielle Gründe angegeben. Auch die Sorge vor negativen beruflichen Konsequenzen wird häufig genannt. Diese beiden Punkte könnten von der Politik zum einen durch ein Anheben der Lohnersatzrate im unteren Einkommensbereich und zum anderen durch bessere Informationen über die zu erwartenden Auswirkungen von Elternzeit auf die zukünftigen Löhne und beruflichen Karrieren von Müttern und Vätern adressiert werden." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

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Schober, Pia S. & Gundula Zoch (2019): Change in the gender division of domestic work after mummy or daddy took leave. An examination of alternative explanations. In: European Societies, Jg. 21, H. 1, S. 158-180. DOI:10.1080/14616696.2018.1465989

Abstract

"This study investigates how the durations of childcare leaves taken by mothers and fathers in Germany relate to the gender division of housework and childcare after labour market return. It examines to what extent changes in economic resources because of leave take-up may account for adaptations in the division of domestic work of dual-earner couples. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (1992-2012) on about 800 couples with a first or second birth, we applied OLS regression models with lagged dependent variables. The results suggested that dual-earner couples where mothers took longer leaves experienced a greater shift towards a gender-traditional division of domestic labour after childbirth. Fathers' leave take-up was associated with a more equal division of family work. Lower relative earnings, e.g. as a result of changes in job-related skills after the leave, did not account for the shift in the gender division of family work." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Welteke, Clara & Katharina Wrohlich (2019): Peer effects in parental leave decisions. In: Labour economics, Jg. 57, H. April, S. 146-163. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2019.02.008

Abstract

"We analyze whether mothers' parental leave decisions depend on their coworkers' decisions. The identification of peer effects bears various challenges due to correlated characteristics within social groups. We therefore exploit quasi-random variation in the costs of parental leave induced by a policy reform in Germany. The reform encourages mothers to remain at home during the first year following childbirth. Administrative linked employer- employee data enable us to assign a peer group to individuals who work in the same establishment and occupation. Our results suggest that parental leave decisions are significantly influenced by coworkers' decisions." (Author's abstract, © 2019 Elsevier) ((en))

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Zannella, Marina & Alessandra De Rose (2019): Stability and change in family time transfers and workload inequality in Italian couples. In: Demographic Research, Jg. 40, S. 49-60. DOI:10.4054/DemRes.2019.40.3

Abstract

"Objective: This article analyses changes from 2003 to 2014 in the magnitude and directions of family time (i.e., non-market) transfers and in the gender distribution of total work among Italian couples.
Methods: The study draws on microdata from the 2003, 2009, and 2014 Italian Time Use Surveys. First, we follow the National Transfer Accounts methodology to estimate gender-specific age profiles of production and consumption of unpaid domestic work and of the related time transfers within families. Then, we focus on couples and build an indicator of workload inequality. Finally, we perform a multivariate statistical analysis to describe the characteristics of the partners associated with gender inequality in the division of work disfavouring women.
Results: Female non-market work decreased by an average of 36 minutes per day during the 2003 - 2014 period. However, women continue to be net donors of time transfers within the family and to perform the bulk of the work within the couple. Households where both partners do not work in the market or where only the woman has a market job show the highest levels of inequality, with women contributing to about 70% of the couples' total working time.
Contribution: This study sheds light on the provision of informal welfare within Italian families by illustrating, with an age- and gender-specific focus, the recent evolution of time transfers. It also contributes to the literature on the gender division of work both by introducing a new indicator of the workload inequality between partners, and by providing further evidence of the persistency of gender asymmetries in Italian couples." (Author's abstract, © Max-Planck-Institut für demographische Forschung) ((en))

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Barglowski, Karolina & Paula Pustulka (2018): Tightening early childcare choices - gender and social class inequalities among Polish mothers in Germany and the UK. In: Comparative Migration Studies, Jg. 6, S. 1-16. DOI:10.1186/s40878-018-0102-6

Abstract

"Care for young children continues to highly influence the life chances of men and women, even more so when they are migrants. For migrant women, childcare remains a particular challenge when their kin are absent and the gendered norms of work and family life abroad diverge from what they have known in the country of origin. This article contributes to a deeper understanding of social class and childcare strategies of migrant women by combining two research projects with migrants from Poland to Germany and the UK. Accounts represented in this article depict the ways in which migrant mothers interpret and use the available childcare options, thereby highlighting how class-based resources are deployed and reproduced in two different welfare regimes. The comparative approach pursued in the article reveals that it is neither class nor national context that has a capacity to determine early childcare choices on its own. Instead, it is an intricate interplay of social protections' availability, gender norms and social class, which together engender various childcare strategies." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Bartels, Charlotte & Cortnie Shupe (2018): Drivers of participation elasticities across Europe. Gender or earner role within the household? (IZA discussion paper 11359), Bonn, 41 S.

Abstract

"We compute participation tax rates across the EU and find that work disincentives inherent in tax-benefit systems largely depend on household composition and the individual's earner role within the household. We then estimate participation elasticities using an IV Group estimator that enables us to investigate the responsiveness of individuals to work incentives. We contribute to the literature on heterogeneous elasticities by providing estimates for different socioeconomic groups by country, gender and earner role within the household. Our results show an average elasticity of 0.08 for men and of 0.14 for women as well as a high degree of heterogeneity across countries. The commonly cited difference in elasticities between men and women stems predominantly from the earner role of the individual within the household and nearly disappears once we control for this factor." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Binder, Ariel J. & David Lam (2018): Is there a male breadwinner norm? The hazards of inferring preferences from marriage market outcomes. (IZA discussion paper 11693), Bonn, 49 S.

Abstract

"Spousal characteristics such as age, height, and earnings are often used in social science research to infer social preferences. For example, a 'male taller' norm has been inferred from the fact that fewer wives are taller than their husbands than would occur with random matching. The large proportion of husbands out-earning their wives has similarly been cited as evidence for a 'male breadwinner' norm. This paper argues that it is difficult and potentially misleading to infer social preferences about an attribute from observed marital sorting on that attribute. We show that positive assortative matching on an attribute is consistent with a wide variety of underlying preferences, including 'female taller' or 'female breadwinner' norms. Given prevailing gender gaps in height and earnings, positive sorting implies it will be rare for women to be taller than, or earn more than, their husbands - even if there is no underlying preference for shorter or lowerearning wives. In an empirical application, we show that simulations which sort couples positively on permanent earnings can largely replicate the observed distribution of spousal earnings differences in US Census data. Further, we show that an apparent sharp drop in the distribution function at the point where the wife begins to out-earn the husband results from a mass of couples earning identical incomes, a mass which we argue is not evidence of a norm for higher-earning husbands." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))