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Trading off or having it all? Completed fertility and mid-career earnings of Swedish men and women

Author

Listed:
  • Boschini, Anne

    (Department of Economics, Stockholm University)

  • Håkanson, Christina

    (IIES, Stockholm University)

  • Rosén, Åsa

    (SOFI, Stockholm University)

  • Sjögren, Anna

    (IFAU - Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation)

Abstract

Earnings in mid-career and children are two fundamental outcomes of the life-choices of men and women. Both require time and other resources and reflect the accumulated priorities of individuals and couples. We explore how these outcomes have changed for Swedish men and women born 1945-1962 by documenting changes in education, assortative mating patterns, completed fertility and mid-career earnings. We find an overall increasing inequality in career and family outcomes of men, reflecting a rise in the family-career complementarity. For women, the family-career trade-off has eased for non-professionals, and there appears to be a convergence in the life-choices of women across education groups. Despite these different developments for men and women, we find that within-family specialization, measured by the average spousal earnings contribution, is remarkably stable through the period.

Suggested Citation

  • Boschini, Anne & Håkanson, Christina & Rosén, Åsa & Sjögren, Anna, 2011. "Trading off or having it all? Completed fertility and mid-career earnings of Swedish men and women," Working Paper Series 2011:15, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ifauwp:2011_015
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    Cited by:

    1. Angelov, Nikolay & Johansson, Per & Lindahl, Erica, 2013. "Gender differences in sickness absence and the gender division of family responsibilities," Working Paper Series, Center for Labor Studies 2013:5, Uppsala University, Department of Economics.
    2. Christian Neumeier & Todd Sørensen & Douglas Webber, 2018. "The Implicit Costs of Motherhood over the Lifecycle: Cross‐Cohort Evidence from Administrative Longitudinal Data," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 84(3), pages 716-733, January.
    3. Helena Holmlund, 2022. "How Much Does Marital Sorting Contribute to Intergenerational Socioeconomic Persistence?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(2), pages 372-399.
    4. Nikolay Angelov & Per Johansson & Erica Lindahl, 2020. "Sick of family responsibilities?," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(2), pages 777-814, February.
    5. Roman Bobilev & Anne Boschini & Jesper Roine, 2020. "Women in the Top of the Income Distribution: What Can We Learn From LIS-Data?," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 6(1), pages 63-107, March.
    6. Nikolay Angelov & Per Johansson & Erica Lindahl, 2016. "Parenthood and the Gender Gap in Pay," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(3), pages 545-579.
    7. Astrid Kunze, 2020. "The effect of children on male earnings and inequality," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 683-710, September.
    8. Boschini, Anne & Gunnarsson, Kristin & Roine, Jesper, 2020. "Women in top incomes – Evidence from Sweden 1971–2017," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    9. Kathrin Morosow & Martin Kolk, 2020. "How Does Birth Order and Number of Siblings Affect Fertility? A Within-Family Comparison Using Swedish Register Data," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(2), pages 197-233, April.
    10. Holmlund, Helena & Lindahl, Erica & Roman, Sara, 2023. "Immigrant peers in the class: Effects on natives’ long-run revealed preferences," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Raute, Anna, 2019. "Can financial incentives reduce the baby gap? Evidence from a reform in maternity leave benefits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 203-222.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fertility; mid-career earnings; education; gender; assortative mating; family-career trade-off;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity

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