Laura Muro (Universidad Pública de Navarra)
This paper examines how gender norms within couples shape the magnitude of the child penalty. Using longitudinal data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), a household-level measure of gender norms is constructed from pre-birth attitudes of both partners, allowing the analysis to move beyond individual-level measures of gender attitudes. Dynamic labor market responses to the birth of the first child are estimated using an event-study design, comparing trajectories across groups defined by household gender norms. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity in the child penalty across normative environments. Women in more traditional households experience larger and more persistent reductions in hours worked, labor earnings, employment, and labor force participation than those in more egalitarian households. Both the respondents and the partners pre-birth attitudes independently predict the magnitude of the penalty, indicating that post-birth labor supply adjustments are shaped by the joint normative environment within the couple rather than by individual attitudes alone. To assess alternative mechanisms, the analysis controls for pre-birth comparative advantage within the couple and explicitly accounts for assortative mating in gender attitudes. While these factors explain part of the observed specialization, they do not eliminate the relationship between household gender norms and post-birth labor market adjustments. These findings indicate that the child penalty reflects not only pre-birth labor market differences and partner sorting, but also the joint determination of gender norms within the couple.