“Explaining Variation in Child Penalties: The Role of Gender Norms and Policies”

This paper contributes to understanding global variation in child and marriage penalties by focusing on the role of patriarchal control, gender norms, and public policies. We introduce a new measure of gender norms, the Control Index, which captures women’s ‘freedom to choose’ in key areas of daily life, including mobility, marital choices, workplace rights, and financial independence. Using data from nearly 60 countries, we investigate the extent to which patriarchal control influences the child and marriage penalties, trying to disentangle the still unexplained part of the gender gap. Our findings reveal that higher levels of patriarchal control are strongly associated with larger marriage penalties. In particular, control over marriage decisions is closely correlated with both higher child and marriage penalties, while restrictions on women’s financial autonomy contributes mainly to explaining marriage penalties. This suggests that, in addition to childcare-support policies, financial inclusion for women, could mitigate the effects of patriarchal control and conservative gender norms. Our analysis underscores the importance of addressing these norms alongside public policy interventions to reduce gender disparities in the labour market.   JEL Classification Code: J13-fertility, family planning, childcare, children, youth; J16-economics of gender, non-labor discrimination; J22-time allocation and labor supply