Thread by @DurRobert

Did you see this graph by Kleven et al. (2018) showing that earnings of men and women in Denmark diverge sharply right after the arrival of the first child?

Kleven et al. (2019) now studied the same for Sweden, Germany, Austria, the UK, and the US.

And guess what? (1/6)

The divergence is even sharper in these countries.

Below you see Denmark and Sweden.

The short-run earnings penalty is about twice as large in Sweden as it is in Denmark. (2/6)

The UK and US feature less dramatic short-run earning penalties, but larger long-run penalties: 44% in the UK and 31% in the US. (3/6)

By far the highest earnings penalties are found for Germany and Austria: up to 80% in the short run and 60% in the long run. (4/6)

Turns out there is a striking correlation between these long-run earnings penalties and gender norms, measured here as the fraction of people who think that women with children under school age should stay at home. (5/6)

Links to the papers:

Kleven et al. (2018): econ.lse.ac.uk/staff/clandais… forthcoming in AEJ-Applied

Kleven et al. (2019): henrikkleven.com/uploads/3/7/3/… prepared for the AEA Papers & Proceedings (6/6)