DP600 Child Care and Mothers' Lifetime Earnings: Some European Contrasts
Author(s): | Hugh Davies, Heather Joshi |
Publication Date: | January 1991 |
Keyword(s): | Child Care, Childbearing, Comparisons, Europe, Opportunity Cost |
JEL(s): | 826, 840, 850 |
Programme Areas: | Human Resources |
Link to this Page: | cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=600 |
Patterns of female employment participation are compared in a variety of European countries with differing levels of child care provision. The earnings forgone over a lifetime by a woman bearing children (compared with the earnings of her childless counterpart) are simulated for four countries, using estimated parameters for the effects of participation, hours worked and wages. Western Germany and the United Kingdom each have larger earnings `losses' than France and Sweden, where there is also more out-of-home provision for children of and below school age. The effect on mothers' lifetime earnings of various hypothetical extensions of child care in the UK is simulated.