Arbeitspapier

Motherhood and flexible jobs: Evidence from Latin American countries

We study the causal effect of motherhood on labour market outcomes in Latin America by adopting an event study approach around the birth of the first child based on panel data from national household surveys for Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay. Our main contributions are: (i) providing new and comparable evidence on the effects of motherhood on labour outcomes in developing countries; (ii) exploring the possible mechanisms driving these outcomes; (iii) discussing the potential links between child penalty and the prevailing gender norms and family policies in the region. We find that motherhood reduces women's labour supply in the extensive and intensive margins and influences female occupational structure towards flexible occupations- part-time work, self-employment, and labour informality-needed for family-work balance. Furthermore, countries with more conservative gender norms and less generous family policies are associated with larger differences between mothers' and non-mothers' labour market outcomes.

ISBN
978-92-9256-971-6
Language
Englisch

Bibliographic citation
Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2021/33

Classification
Wirtschaft
Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Informal Labor Markets
Subject
child penalty
event study
female labour supply
self-employment
labour informality
developing countries
Latin America

Event
Geistige Schöpfung
(who)
Berniell, Inés
Berniell, Lucila
Dolores de la Mata
Edo, María
Marchionni, Mariana
Event
Veröffentlichung
(who)
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
(where)
Helsinki
(when)
2021

DOI
doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2021/971-6
Handle
Last update
10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET

Data provider

This object is provided by:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. If you have any questions about the object, please contact the data provider.

Object type

  • Arbeitspapier

Associated

  • Berniell, Inés
  • Berniell, Lucila
  • Dolores de la Mata
  • Edo, María
  • Marchionni, Mariana
  • The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)

Time of origin

  • 2021

Other Objects (12)