Dynamic model of the grandmotherhood penalty (with P. Bennett, N. Mantovan) [Ongoing]
In this paper, we develop a discrete choice dynamic programming (DCDP) model to study how women transitioning into grandparenthood allocate their time between labour market participation and caregiving for younger generations. Drawing on rich Norwegian administrative data, we focus on middle-aged and older women to capture the dynamic trade-offs they face when deciding whether to continue working, reduce hours, or exit the labour force after becoming grandmothers. By incorporating expectations about future wages and caregiving demands, our framework offers a comprehensive understanding of how women navigate these life transitions over time, contributing new insights to the literature on labour supply, caregiving, and ageing.
The Gendered Juggle Of Grandparenthood: Labour Market Differences Within Couples [Draft coming soon]
With ageing populations and longer careers, grandparenthood emerges as a common but gendered life event that shapes labour supply differently for women and men within the same household. In this paper, I estimate the differences in labour market outcomes within grandparent couples using an event study approach centred around the birth of the first grandchild. I find strong evidence of a `grandchild penalty' on labour supply with a 3-7pp increase in the difference in labour market participation within couples 1-7 years after the birth of the grandchild. Women also bear a $4011 income penalty a year later, compared to their spouses. The penalty is larger for women in couples where both spouses have white-collar jobs or are both college-educated. I also find greater involvement of the maternal grandparental unit as a whole, while paternal grandmothers face a significant participation penalty. Further, women who live in a different state from their adult children and grandchildren, drop out of the labour force more compared to those living in the same state. Key policy implications of these findings include the need for flexible work arrangements for middle-aged and older women, as well as a life-course approach to address gender inequalities in labour market participation and earnings.
Received the PhD Scholars' Award 2025 at the Royal Economic Society Conference, Birmingham
From health to agency: Unintended benefits of a safe motherhood programme on IPV in India [Submitted]
I estimate the effect of a safe motherhood cash transfer programme in India on women’s perceptions of the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) in their communities. The Janani Suraksha Yojana is one of the world’s largest conditional cash transfer schemes, providing one-time assistance to socio-economically marginalised women who give birth at government or accredited private health facilities. The empirical strategy exploits the programme’s categorisation of states as low- and high-performing, based on institutional delivery rates before 2005. Using panel data from the India Human Development Survey and a Difference-in-Differences approach, I find that JSY led to an 8–14 percentage point (or 44 %) reduction in women’s perception of IPV prevalence in the 10 low-performing states where programme coverage was wider. Supplementary analysis using the Demographic and Health Survey shows that the programme also reduced women’s self-reported experiences of violence. The results suggest improvements in women’s intra-household bargaining power, measured through greater agency in decisions about their health and finances. These findings highlight the positive spillover effects of maternal health programmes for gender equality and have important implications for the prioritisation of social protection policies.