Motherhood and the Allocation of Talent
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Inés Berniell [4] ; Lucila Berniell [5] ; Dolores de la Mata [6] ; María Edo [1] ; Yarine Fawaz [2] ; Matilde P. Machado [3] ; Mariana Marchionni [4]
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[1] Universidad de San Andrés
Universidad de San Andrés
Argentina
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[2] Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros
Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros
Madrid, España
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[3] Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Madrid, España
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[4] CEDLAS
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[5] CAF-Development Bank of Latin America
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[6] CAF-Development Bank of Latin
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- Localización: Documentos de Trabajo ( CEMFI ), Nº. 26 (CEMFI Working Paper No. 2026, December 2020 (Revised November 2021)), 2020
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
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Resumen
In this paper we show that motherhood triggers changes in the allocation of talent in the labor market beyond the well-known effects on gender gaps in employment and earnings. We use an event study approach with retrospective data for 29 countries drawn from SHARE to assess the labor market responses to motherhood across groups with different educational attainment, math ability by the age of 10, and personality traits. We find that while even the most talented women— both in absolute terms and relative to their husbands—leave the labor market or uptake part-time jobs after the birth of the first child, all men, including the least talented, stay employed. We also find that motherhood induces a negative selection of talents into self-employment. Although these results are observed in all 29 countries, there is some heterogeneity in the magnitude of the motherhood effects. We find larger motherhood effects in countries with more conservative social norms or with weaker policies regarding work-life balance. Overall, our results suggest relevant changes in the allocation of talent caused by gender differences in nonmarket responsibilities that can have sizable impacts on aggregate market productivity.
