Minji Bang and Hanna Wang:
“Job Search and Mobility Over the Life-Cycle: Implications for the Child Penalty”

We document using Dutch administrative and survey data that women’s job mobility drops around childbirth. Women make fewer job-to-job transitions starting one year before birth until many years after. They are also less likely to engage in on-the-job search and work in jobs with low amenities related to irregular hours. We develop a life-cycle labor supply, job search and job switching model for women in which mothers and pregnant women face higher search costs. Jobs are characterized as bundles of wages and amenities, the latter decrease work disutility. We use the model to quantify a novel channel through which the child penalty operates: because (expecting) mothers perform less job search, they remain in jobs with low wages and amenities, therefore working and earning less. Search costs related to childbirth reduce lifetime earnings by 10.1%, accounting for 33.7% of the child penalty. We validate our model with a recent reform which eliminated tenure requirements for parental leave. Mothers increased job switching before birth but decreased employment in the year of birth.