Research
Publications
Is Parental Leave Costly for Firms and Coworkers?, Journal of Labor Economics (2024)
with Serena Canaan, Nikolaj Harmon, and Heather Royer
We estimate the effect of a female employee giving birth and taking parental leave on small firms and coworkers in Denmark using a dynamic difference-in-differences design. We find little evidence that parental leave take-up has negative effects on firms and coworkers overall. This is because most firms are very effective in compensating for the worker on leave by hiring temporary workers and by increasing other employees’ hours. In contrast, we do find evidence that parental leave has negative effects on a small subsample of firms which are less able to use their existing employees to compensate for absent workers.
Press Coverage: Market Watch, FNTalk, Berlingske
Parenting Values and the Intergenerational Transmission of Time Preferences, European Economic Review (2022)
with Thomas Epper
Previous research has documented a correlation in contemporaneously measured time preferences between parents and children. However, this evidence is vulnerable to concerns of reverse causality and the transmission mechanisms remain largely unknown. Based on high-quality administrative and survey data, we address these issues and document a substantial transmission of patience from parents to children that persists as children age. In addition, we study two theoretically important but distinct channels of socialization through which parents can influence children’s traits: parenting values and parental involvement. Our results show that, while parental involvement is not an important channel of the transmission, parenting values are key. Authoritative parents—who are characterized by exhibiting high control and warmth—do not transmit patience to their children, in contrast to authoritarian and permissive parents. Thus, the authoritative parenting style can be seen as an effective tool to counteract the transmission of impatience. The results are robust to comprehensive sets of controls and replicate in an independent sample with richer measures of parental involvement.
No Evidence that Siblings’ Gender Affects Personality Across Nine Countries, Psychological Science (2022)
with Jan Feld, Thomas Dudek, and Julia Rohrer
Does growing up with a sister rather than a brother affect personality? In this paper, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the effects of siblings’ gender on adults’ personality, using data from 85,887 people from 12 large representative surveys covering 9 countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, Mexico, China, and Indonesia). We investigated the personality traits risk tolerance, trust, patience, locus of control, and the Big Five. We found no meaningful causal effects of the gender of the next younger sibling, and no associations with the gender of the next older sibling. Based on high statistical power and consistent results in the overall sample and relevant subsamples, our results suggest that siblings’ gender does not systematically affect personality.
Continuous Gender Identity and Economics, AEA Papers and Proceedings (2022)
with Lea Heursen, Eva Ranehill, And Roberto A. Weber,
Presented at ASSA 2022: session "Identity, Culture, and the Economics of Gender"
Economic research on gender largely focuses on biological sex, the binary classification as either a “man” or “woman.” We investigate the value of incorporating a measure of continuous gender identity (CGI) into economics by exploring whether it explains variation in economic preferences and behavior, beyond the explanatory power of binary sex. First, we validate a novel single-item CGI measure in a survey study, showing that it correlates with measures used in gender research. Second, we use our single-item CGI measure in an incentivized laboratory experiment to assess CGI’s power in explaining previously documented gender gaps in four important economic preferences.
Brothers Increase Women's Gender Conformity, Journal of Population Economics (2022) (working paper version)
I examine how one central aspect of the family environment --sibling sex composition-- affects women’s gender conformity. Using Danish administrative data, I causally estimate the effect of having a second-born brother relative to a sister for first-born women. I show that women with a brother acquire more traditional gender roles, as measured through their choice of occupation and partner. This results in a stronger response to motherhood in labor market outcomes. As a relevant mechanism, I provide evidence of increased gender-specialized parenting in families with mixed-sex children. Finally, I find persistent effects to the next generation of girls.
(This is the previous version of the paper: Origins of Gender Norms: Sibling Gender Composition and Women's Choice of Occupation and Partner, IZA DP No. 11692.)
Press Coverage: IZA Newsroom, P1 Morgen (Danish National Radio), CPH Post, Magisterbladet, University of Copenhagen News
Exposure to More Female Peers Widens the Gender Gap in STEM Participation, Journal of Labor Economics (2020)
with Ulf Zölitz
This paper investigates how high school gender composition affects students’ participation in STEM college studies. Using Danish administrative data, we exploit idiosyncratic within-school variation in gender composition. We find that having a larger proportion of female peers reduces women’s probability of enrolling in and graduating from STEM programs. Men’s STEM participation increases with more female peers present. In the long run, women exposed to more female peers earn less because they (1) are less likely to work in STEM occupations, and (2) have more children. Our findings show that the school peer environment has lasting effects on occupational sorting and the gender wage gap.
Gender Gaps in the Effects of Childhood Family Environment: Do They Persist into Adulthood? European Economic Review (2018)
with Shelly Lundberg
We examine the differential effects of family disadvantage on the education and adult labor market outcomes of men and women using high-quality administrative data on the entire population of Denmark born between 1966 and 1995. We link parental education and family structure during childhood to male-female and brother-sister differences in adolescent outcomes, educational attainment, and adult earnings and employment. Our results are consistent with U.S. findings that boys benefit more from an advantageous family environment than do girls in terms of grade-school outcomes. Father's education, which has not been examined in previous studies, is particularly important for sons. However, we find a very different pattern of parental influence on adult outcomes. Gender gaps in educational attainment, employment, and earnings are increasing in maternal education, benefiting daughters. Paternal education decreases the gender gaps in educational attainment (favoring sons) and labor market outcomes (favoring daughters). We conclude that differences in the behavior of school-aged boys and girls are poor proxies for differences in skills that drive longer-term outcomes.
Birth Order and Health of Newborns: What Can We Learn from Danish Registry Data?, Journal of Population Economics (2018)
with Ramona Molitor
We study birth order differences in health from birth throughout childhood using matched administrative data for more than one million children born in Denmark between 1981 and 2010. Using family fixed effects models, we find a positive and robust effect of birth order on health at birth; firstborn children are less healthy at birth. Examining prenatal investments, we find that during earlier pregnancies women are more likely to smoke, receive more prenatal care, and are diagnosed with more medical pregnancy complications, suggesting worse maternal health. Data on hospital admissions reveal that the general health advantage of later-born children persists in the first years of life and disappears by age seven. At the same time, later-born children are at each age throughout childhood more likely to be diagnosed with an injury, a result that is in line with previous evidence of a later-born disadvantage in education.
Press Coverage: The Telegraph
Working Papers
[NEW] (Not) Thinking about the Future: Inattention and Maternal Labor Supply
with Ana Costa-Ramon, Ursina Schaede, and Michaela Slotwinski
The "child penalty'' significantly reduces women’s lifetime earnings and pension savings, but it remains unclear whether these gaps are the deliberate result of forward-looking decisions. This paper provides novel evidence on the role of cognitive constraints in mothers’ labor supply decisions. In a large-scale field experiment that combines rich survey and administrative data, we provide mothers with objective, individualized information about the long-run costs of reduced labor supply. The treatment increases demand for financial information and future labor supply plans, in particular among women who underestimated the long-term costs. Leveraging linked employer administrative data one year post-intervention, we observe that these mothers increase their actual labor supply by 6 percent over the mean.
[NEW] Gender Identity and Economic Decision Making
with Zeynep Eyibak, Eva Ranehill, Lea Heursen, and Roberto Weber
Economic research on gender gaps has focused on variation based on the binary classification of "men" and "women". We explore whether a self-reported continuous measure of gender identity (CGI) explains variation in economic decisions and outcomes beyond the relationship with binary gender. We analyze data from four diverse populations (N=8,018), including measures of economic preferences and educational and labor market outcomes. We find that CGI is significantly associated with economic outcomes, with stronger relationships for men than women. Our results indicate that incorporating measures of self-reported gender identity could enhance our understanding of gender gaps in economic behavior and outcomes.
Causal Effects of Breastfeeding Promotion on Child Health: Understanding the Role of Nutrition
with Jenna Stearns and Richard Martin
Using data from the only large-scale randomized controlled trial promoting prolonged exclusive breastfeeding, we show that the intervention significantly and persistently increased weight-for-age. To explain this result, we provide novel evidence of changes in infant feeding patterns. The estimated increase in calories that treated infants consumed explains a major share of the weight gain in early infancy. Our results suggest that understanding the common alternatives to breast milk is key for designing optimal infant feeding policies.
Work in Progress
Math skills, perceptions of fit, and occupational choice (data collection completed. Analysis ongoing. AEA RCT Registry 0010215)
with Melanie Wasserman
We study how beliefs about math skills and fit affect occupational choice among Swiss students who are about to apply to apprenticeships. Although there is no gender difference in math skills, we document a substantial gender gap in preferences and search for math-intensive apprenticeships. We conduct a field experiment that randomizes the provision of gender-specific information on math ability and fit in gender-incongruent occupations. The intervention increases both boys' and girls' perceptions of fit in gender-incongruent occupations by 0.09-0.16 standard deviations. Furthermore, it increases boys' (girls') probability of searching for information about any gender-incongruent occupation over the following two weeks by 44 (27) percent and leads to an increase in their plans to apply for trial apprenticeships and/or apprenticeships in these occupations. The effects on plans to apply for gender-incongruent occupations are driven by boys with low-math skills and girls with high-math skills. Later this year, we will link our survey data to administrative data from the largest apprenticeship application website to evaluate whether the intervention has effects on occupational choice.
Presentation and panel discussion "Girls in STEM" at SNS in Sweden
How Do Firms Respond to Parental Leave Absences? (write up)
with Ursa Krenk, Andreas Steinhauer, and Josef Zweimüller
How do firms adjust their labor demand when a female employee takes parental leave following childbirth? Do these adjustments depend on the leave duration? To address these questions, we compare "treated" firms—where an employee gives birth—with comparable "control" firms without a birth. Using Austrian social security data and leveraging parental leave policy changes that significantly changed leave durations, we document three main findings. First, firms experience systematic changes in hiring, employment, and total wage bills both before and during parental leave, but these effects vanish over time. Second, parental leave affects firms' demand for female and male labor differently, reflecting strong gender segregation within firms. Third, while extended government-mandated parental leave increases actual leave durations, it does not significantly influence other firm-level outcomes. These results indicate that Austrian firms effectively manage temporary leave absences following childbirth, even within the context of generous parental leave policies.
Parents' perceptions of occupational fit (first experiment: baseline and follow-up completed; AEA RCT Registry 0012937. Second experiment: ongoing; AEA RCT Registry 0014813)
with Daphne Rutnam
Encouraging hands-on job experimentation among teenagers (intervention ongoing. AEA RCT Registry 0011973 and 0012454)
with Alexia Delfino, Claudio Schilter, and Stefan Wolter
Backlash from Gender Equality (intervention ongoing. AEA RCT Registry 0012382)
with Michela Carlana, Stefan Wolter, and Thea Zöllner
Father involvement and family well-being (intervention ongoing. AEA RCT Registry 0014240)
with Victoria Baranov, Pietro Biroli, and Xiaoyue Shan
Son preference worldwide (analysis)
with Melanie Wasserman