Parenthood and the gender gap in commuting

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Butikofer, Aline; Karadakic, Rene; Willen, Alexander
• 署名单位: Norwegian School of Economics (NHH); Harvard University; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105371
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: Commuting; Gender Wage Gap; parenthood

摘要

Childbirth raises the opportunity cost of commuting and makes it difficult for both parents to work far away from home. Using detailed Norwegian employer-employee matched register data, we show that the commuting behavior of men and women diverges immediately after childbirth and that those differences persist for least a decade. This divergence in commuting behavior exposes mothers to more concentrated and suburban labor markets with fewer job opportunities and lower establishment quality. These findings uncover a mechanism underlying the child penalty documented in prior work and have important implications for design of policies seeking to address the remaining gender wage gap.