The role of parental leave policies in mitigating child penalties: insights from Italy
利用意大利行政数据，研究发现生育对母亲收入有负面影响，但将育儿津贴计入收入后，惩罚在生育当年几乎消失，次年减半以上，但母亲收入始终未追上父亲收入。
• Childbirth affects mothers' earnings negatively, while fathers' earnings remain largely unaffected • Women experience an increased probability to exit the workforce after becoming parents. • Social security transfers mitigate the penalty on earnings. This study examines child penalties for mothers and fathers in Italy by using novel administrative data. Relying on an event study approach, we find that childbirth affects mothers' earnings negatively, while fathers' earnings remain largely unaffected. However, when leave allowances are included in earnings, the child penalty for women nearly disappears in the year of childbirth and drops by more than half in the following year. Subsequently mothers’ earnings quickly return to pre-birth levels, but never catch up to fathers' earnings, which follow an upward trajectory, increasing by approximately 46% seven years after childbirth.