Inside the black box of child penalties: Unpaid work and household structure

Abstract

Recent work, mostly based on developed countries, has highlighted the negative effects of motherhood on labor market outcomes as a persistent source of gender inequality. In developing countries, the prevalence of extended families and more traditional gender norms, can shift the magnitude and time signature of the child penalties. Using high-frequency data from Mexico, this paper provides the first estimates of child penalties on unpaid work and unveils their extensive and intensive-margin effects on paid work that start at pregnancy. We find that these gendered patterns extend to other women in the household, regardless of their age, reinforcing gender roles. Our results suggest that the presence of other women reduces the time burden of child rearing on parents.

Keywords: Child penalty, Event study, Gender norms, Family structure, Labor outcomes, Mexico

JEL Classification: J12, J13, J16, J22, J31