IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp17601.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

When Mothers Out-Earn Fathers: Effects on Fathers' Decisions to Take Paternity and Parental Leave

Author

Listed:
  • Biasi, Paola

    (International Social Security Association)

  • De Paola, Maria

    (University of Calabria)

  • Gioia, Francesca

    (University of Milan)

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of the male breadwinner norm on fathers' decisions regarding childcare responsibilities. We study the complex interplay between economic factors and gender norms in shaping the division of household labor within families by analyzing the impact a breadwinning mother has on fathers' choices regarding paternity leave (fully subsidized) and parental leave (partially or not subsidized). We exploit administrative data, provided by the Italian National Security Institute (INPS), including demographic and working characteristics of both parents together with information on the use of paternity and parental leave by fathers in the 2013-2023 period. We find that, in line with the "doing gender" hypothesis, when the leave is fully subsidized, as for paternity leave, fathers are less likely to engage in childcare when their wives earn more than they do. In contrast, this dynamic does not apply in cases of parental leave, where the economic costs of aligning with the gender norm are substantial. The effects we find are robust when replacing the actual probability of there being an out-earning mother with the potential probability and are amplified by the salience of the gender identity norm.

Suggested Citation

  • Biasi, Paola & De Paola, Maria & Gioia, Francesca, 2025. "When Mothers Out-Earn Fathers: Effects on Fathers' Decisions to Take Paternity and Parental Leave," IZA Discussion Papers 17601, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17601
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp17601.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maéva Doumbia & Marion Goussé, 2021. "Gender identity and relative income within households: Evidence from Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(4), pages 1667-1683, November.
    2. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Johanna Posch & Andreas Steinhauer & Josef Zweimüller, 2024. "Do Family Policies Reduce Gender Inequality? Evidence from 60 Years of Policy Experimentation," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 110-149, May.
    3. Daniel Kuehnle & Michael Oberfichtner & Kerstin Ostermann, 2021. "Revisiting gender identity and relative income within households: A cautionary tale on the potential pitfalls of density estimators," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(7), pages 1065-1073, November.
    4. Henrik Kleven & Camille Landais & Jakob Egholt Søgaard, 2019. "Children and Gender Inequality: Evidence from Denmark," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(4), pages 181-209, October.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Emir Kamenica & Jessica Pan, 2015. "Gender Identity and Relative Income within Households," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 571-614.
    6. Karin Hederos & Anders Stenberg, 2022. "Gender identity and relative income within households: evidence from Sweden," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 744-772, July.
    7. Sara Cools & Jon H. Fiva & Lars J. Kirkebøen, 2015. "Causal Effects of Paternity Leave on Children and Parents," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(3), pages 801-828, July.
    8. Karen Codazzi & Valéria Pero & André Albuquerque Sant'Anna, 2018. "Social norms and female labor participation in Brazil," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 1513-1535, November.
    9. Estefanía Galván, 2022. "Gender Identity and Quality of Employment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 409-436, April.
    10. Zhao, Yucong & Ye, Bing & Shi, Jinchuan, 2022. "Gender identity, preference, and relative income within households," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Natalia Zinovyeva & Maryna Tverdostup, 2021. "Gender Identity, Coworking Spouses, and Relative Income within Households," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 258-284, October.
    12. 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.
    13. Mari Rege & Ingeborg Solli, 2013. "The Impact of Paternity Leave on Fathers’ Future Earnings," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 50(6), pages 2255-2277, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Estefanía Galván & Cecilia García‐peñalosa, 2024. "Interactions among gender norms: Evidence from US couples," Post-Print hal-04792769, HAL.
    2. Estefanía Galván & Cecilia García-Peñalosa, 2021. "Interactions amongst gender norms: Evidence from US couples," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 21-15, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    3. Patrick Schneider & Lídia Farré & Libertad González, 2022. "Changing Gender Norms across Generations: Evidence from a Paternity Leave Reform," Working Papers 1310, Barcelona School of Economics.
    4. Corekcioglu, Gozde & Francesconi, Marco & Kunze, Astrid, 2024. "Expansions in paid parental leave and mothers’ economic progress," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    5. Estefanía Galván, 2022. "Gender Identity and Quality of Employment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(354), pages 409-436, April.
    6. Sarah, Rosenberg, 2024. "Revisiting the Breadwinner Norm: Replicating Bertrand, Kamenica, and Pan (2015)," Working Papers 2024:10, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    7. Ariane Pailhé & Anne Solaz & Maxime Tô, 2024. "Can Daddies Learn to Care for Babies? The Effect of A Short Paternity Leave on the Division of Childcare and Housework," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 43(3), pages 1-48, June.
    8. Kazuyasu Sakamoto & Yoko Morita, 2024. "Gender identity and market and non-market work of married women: evidence from Japan," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 511-533, June.
    9. Dominique Meurs & Pierre Pora, 2025. "Traditional Views, Egalitarian Views, and the Child Penalty: Insights from Immigrant Populations in France," EconomiX Working Papers 2025-10, University of Paris Nanterre, EconomiX.
    10. Rosenqvist, Olof, 2024. "Reducing the gender gap in parental leave through economic incentives? – Evidence from the gender equality bonus in Sweden," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    11. Daniel Kuehnle & Michael Oberfichtner & Kerstin Ostermann, 2021. "Revisiting gender identity and relative income within households: A cautionary tale on the potential pitfalls of density estimators," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(7), pages 1065-1073, November.
    12. Gordon Dahl & Katrine Loken, 2024. "Families, Public Policies, and the Labor Market," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 2423, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
    13. Maéva Doumbia & Marion Goussé, 2021. "Gender identity and relative income within households: Evidence from Canada," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(4), pages 1667-1683, November.
    14. Jessen, Jonas, 2022. "Culture, children and couple gender inequality," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    15. Marianne Bertrand, 2018. "Coase Lecture – The Glass Ceiling," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 85(338), pages 205-231, April.
    16. Rosenqvist, Olof, 2022. "Reducing the gender gap in parental leave through economic incentives? – Evidence from the gender equality bonus in Sweden," Working Paper Series 2022:22, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    17. Høgholm Jørgensen, Thomas & Egholt Søgaard, Jakob, 2024. "The division of parental leave: Empirical evidence and policy design," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    18. Kauany de Souza & Fabiana Rocha & Pedro Forquesato, 2023. "The male breadwinner norm in Brazil," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(4), pages 1759-1770.
    19. Dottori, Davide & Modena, Francesca & Tanzi, Giulia Martina, 2024. "Peer effects in parental leave: Evidence from Italy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    20. Hélène Périvier & Gregory Verdugo, 2021. "Can parental leave be shared?," Working Papers hal-03364048, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    paternity leave; parental leave; gender identity norms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17601. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.