Using data from social security records and an event study approach, we estimate the child penalty in Spain, looking at disparities for women and men across different labor outcomes following the birth of the first child. Our findings show that, the year after the first child is born, mothers’...

Over the last three decades, Spanish female labor force participation (LFP) has tremendously increased, particularly, that of married women. At the same time, the income tax structure, the fiscal treatment of families, policies to reconcile family and work, and the education distribution of...

This paper studies the effects of teenage motherhood on later educational and labor market achievement of the mothers. We construct a pseudo panel from the Brazilian Household Surveys (the 1992-2004 PNADs) and from the Health Ministry data (DATASUS 1981-1992) by state of birth and cohort. We...

In this paper, I assess the employment and income effect of divorce for women in West Germany between 2000 and 2005. With newly available administrative data that allows me to adopt a causal approach, I find strong negative employment effects with respect to marginal employment and strong...

This paper shows how family policies aimed at reconciling the pressures of family and work generate substantial variation in labour market outcomes across developed countries. We use a life-cycle model of female labour supply and savings behaviour, calibrated to the US economy, to assess the...

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is known for having low female labor market participation rates compared with its level of economic development. A possible explanation is that countries in this region do not follow a U-shape relation between female participation and GDP during the...

Parental leave and child care are important instruments of family policies to improve work– family balance. This paper studies the impact of the substantial change in Germany’s parental leave system on maternal employment. The aim of the reform was to decrease birth-related maternal...

While women's labor force participation tends to increase with economic development, the relationship is not straightforward or consistent at the country level. There is considerably more variation across developing countries in labor force participation by women than by men. This variation is...