The Family Gap in Wages: What Wombmates Reveal

32 Pages Posted: 22 Dec 2009

See all articles by Marianne Simonsen

Marianne Simonsen

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics

Lars Skipper

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics

Abstract

We shed new light on the effects of having children on hourly wages by exploiting access to data on the entire population of employed same-sex twins in Denmark. Our second contribution is the use of administrative data on absenteeism; the amount of hours off due to holidays and sickness. Our results suggest that childbearing reduces female hourly wages but the principal explanation is in fact mothers' higher levels of absence. We find a positive wage premium for fathers.

Keywords: fertility, wages, twins

JEL Classification: J13, J24, J31, J71

Suggested Citation

Simonsen, Marianne and Skipper, Lars, The Family Gap in Wages: What Wombmates Reveal. IZA Discussion Paper No. 4650, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1526080 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1526080

Marianne Simonsen (Contact Author)

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics ( email )

Building 326
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
+45 8942 1599 (Phone)

Lars Skipper

Aarhus University - Department of Economics and Business Economics ( email )

Universitetsparken
Building 350
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Denmark
+45 8942 1589 (Phone)
+45 8613 6334 (Fax)

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