The motherhood wage penalty in times of transition

Olena Nizalova, Tamara Sliusarenko and Solomiya Shpak

Journal of Comparative Economics, 2016, vol. 44, issue 1, 56-75

Abstract: Depopulation trend in Ukraine caused to a large extent by the lowest low fertility rates raises serious concerns about the long-term economic growth and the country's future in general. In this paper we investigate the existence and the extent of the motherhood wage penalty as a potential impediment to having (more) children in a unique institutional environment. This environment is characterized by: de jure family supportive labor laws but de facto no legal enforcement of these laws; publicly subsidized childcare; and low cultural support for maternal employment, combined with extensive involvement of grand-parents. Relying on the data from the Ukrainian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey over the period from 1997 to 2007, we find that the overall motherhood wage penalty in Ukraine is much lower than in countries with similar de jure family policies and cultural norms. It constitutes approximately 19%, controlling for individual unobserved heterogeneity, a number of human capital characteristics, actual time in the labor force, and selection into employment. We also find that the motherhood wage penalty differs by education, age at birth of first child, and marital status.

Keywords: Motherhood wage penalty; Wage differentials; Human capital; Family policies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J31 J70 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596715000918
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Motherhood Wage Penalty in Times of Transition (2013)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jcecon:v:44:y:2016:i:1:p:56-75

DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2015.10.009

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Comparative Economics is currently edited by D. Berkowitz and G. Roland

More articles in Journal of Comparative Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().