Children and Gender Gap in Earnings and Wealth: Evidence From Population-Based Data in Taiwan

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of children on gender inequality in earnings and wealth using administrative data from Taiwan. We implement an event study design proposed by Kleven et al. (2019) by exploiting the timing around the birth of the first child. Our results suggest that the birth of the first child causes a long-term gender earnings disparity of about 19%. In addition, we find that parenthood increases women's likelihood of being self-employed. Finally, the arrival of children also leads to substantial gender inequality in wealth. On average, women fall behind men by 9% in net wealth 10 years after the birth of the first child.

JEL Classification: J13, J16, D31, I18