Work in Progress
Daddy's Home? Paternity Leave and Labour Market Outcomes. Job Market Paper [PDF]
Recent research highlights parenthood as a key driver of gender earnings gaps, largely due to differences in male and female labor supply after childbirth. This paper examines how non-transferable paternity leave influences gender differences in the labour market over the life cycle, focusing on Spain's 2021 policy granting 16 weeks of fully paid paternity leave. I combine an empirical analysis using social security data, with a quantitative model of labor supply, parental leave and caregiving decisions, incorporating human capital accumulation both on the job and at home. Awarded the SGPE PhD Student Presentation Prize.
Presented at the EAYE 2026, the CUNEF Workshop, Madrid Inequality Network (MADNEQ 2026), SGPE conference 2026, the Mend the Gap in Economic Opportunities Workshop 2025, the PhD Research Seminar at the University of Edinburgh 2024. Scheduled: EALE 2026.
It's a Long Way Back: Frictional Re-Entry and the Child Penalty. [PDF]
I re-evaluate the determinants of the child penalty from the perspective of labour-market flows. Women are almost 2 times more likely than men to exit employment into non-participation instead of unemployment, and 4 times more likely when they have children. Re-entry into employment from non-participation requires returning to search and subsequently finding a job. The first step to unemployment involves an activation friction, while the second involves the standard matching friction. Men only face the matching friction. To quantify the contribution of these frictions on the child penalty, I develop and estimate a three-state search model with endogenous human capital accumulation and exogenous fertility. Calibrating the model to U.S. data, I show that in general equilibrium, the friction on the way into search (activation friction) accounts for almost all of the employment gap. A full childcare subsidy increases mothers' employment by about 20 percent points, while job-protected unpaid maternity leave only achieves and increase of around 5 percentage points.
Presented at the Catalan Economic Society Congress 2025, Symposium of the Spanish Economic Association (SAEe) 2024, I CEMFI School of Economics 2024, University Carlos III of Madrid Macro Reading Group 2024, University of Edinburgh Macro Reading Group 2024, PhD Research Seminar at the University of Edinburgh 2023, SGPE Conference 2023
So alike, yet so different: A non-parametric variance decomposition of unstable employment cycles. Joint with Maia Güell, Cristina Lafuente, Manuel Sánchez, Hélène Turon. Working paper coming soon!
“What keeps you busy these days?” Fertility, labour force participation and the macroeconomy. Joint with Maia Güell.
Spain has the second-lowest total fertility rate among OECD countries, at 1.3 it has been named the “lowest of low” fertility. Historically, female labour force participation has been limited and, despite a growing trend, it remains quite low and much below that of males. In this project, we investigate how women in Spain allocate their market versus household production time vis-à-vis men. Understanding this can shed light into gender differences in career trajectories and other household level outcomes. We put forward a theoretical household model in which there is bargaining over fertility and labour market participation to understand how the macroeconomy and policies aimed at gender equality and family well-being shape gender gaps in the labour market and fertility trends.
Institutions, Cultural Change, and Gender Differences in the Labor Market. Joint with Albert Rodríguez-Sala and Virginia Sánchez-Marcos.
How do institutions affect economic progress? How can culture foster or hinder growth? The social equilibrium among institutions, culture, and economic progress is a fundamental and particularly challenging question. In this project, we aim to shed light on this question through the study of one of the fundamental macroeconomic changes in the last century: the convergence in gender roles in the labor market.