Project Details
Projekt
Female Employment Patterns, Fertility, Labor Market Reforms, and Firms: A Dynamic Treatment Approach
Subject Area
Statistics and Econometrics
Economic Policy, Applied Economics
Economic Policy, Applied Economics
Term
from 2014 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 256527856
At a time of an aging society, low fertility, technology induced changes in the labor market, globalization, and changing gender roles, female employment patterns and the combination of labor market and family work are of major interest both in research and in the policy debate. Female employment biographies involve quite heterogeneous patterns with different employment states at various points of their life-cycle. Employment decisions are often related to parenthood and the division of household chores and child-rearing as well as to family income and a spouse's career. Entering parenthood and engaging in child-rearing affect the mother's and father's short-term and long-term dynamic employment and earnings paths. From a firm's perspective an employee's exit due to the birth of a child, be it temporary or permanent, alters hiring decisions and may affect the earnings and the careers of coworkers. Reforms of family policies and labor market regulations are likely to influence the career decisions of the workers and hiring and promotion policies of the firms. During the first funding period, this project focuses on the dynamics of female employment patterns, changes in fertility and labor supply across different cohorts (with a particular focus on the rise of part-time work), the career consequences of child birth, and the effects of several reforms of family policies. It exploits a wide range of available administrative data sets and survey data sets. During the second funding period, we want to move on to the perspectives of the firm and of the couple and work on three new research questions using innovative administrative data. First, we will provide evidence on the effects of an exit due to the birth of a child on hiring decisions of the firm and on the careers of coworkers on which there is hardly any evidence so far. Second, we will contribute to the scarce literature investigating the effect of parenthood on the dynamics of the within couple earnings gap. Third, we will estimate the effect of job displacement of her husband on a spouse's career by focusing on her short-term and long-term career path.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
