Women's career choices, social norms and child care policies

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Barigozzi, Francesca; Cremer, Helmuth; Roeder, Kerstin
• 署名单位: University of Bologna; Universite de Toulouse; Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole; Toulouse School of Economics; University of Augsburg
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.10.004
• 发表日期: 2018
• 页码: 162-173
• 关键词: social norms; Child-care; Women's career choices; Child care subsidies; Women quotas; parental leave

摘要

Our model explains the observed gender-specific patterns of career and child-care choices through endogenous social norms. We study how these norms contribute to the emergence of a gender wage gap. We show that via the social norm a couple's child-care and career choices impose an externality on other couples, so that the laissez-faire is inefficient. We use our model to study the design and effectiveness of three commonly used policies. We find that child-care subsidies and women quotas can be effective tools to mitigate or eliminate the externality. Parental leave, however, may even intensify the externality and decrease welfare. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.