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.