Dear colleagues, 

The Research Institute Economics of Inequality (INEQ) at Vienna University of Economics and Business cordially invites you to join our next research seminar. 

More Bad News for Mothers: The Child Penalty in Mental Health

Ulrich Glogowsky (JKU Linz)

Monday, 22.05.2023, 15:00

D4.2.008

Please register your participation here. 

Abstract To assess gender equality in society, it is important to understand how parenthood affects women relative to men. Labor economics has established that women still experience a child penalty in earnings. It is unclear to what degree gender inequality due to childbearing extends beyond the labor market and affects well-being. We combine administrative data from Austria and Denmark with a quasi-experimental event study approach to estimate the impact of the birth of their first child on parents' mental health. We find that mental health deteriorates for both parents after birth, but this effect is much more pronounced for women than for men. The motherhood penalty in mental health is stronger in Austria compared to Denmark. Longer periods of maternal leave exacerbate mental problems.

Best regards,

Franziska Disslbacher