Helene Willadsen presents at conference for Quantitative Educational Research

DISTRACT postdoc Helene Willadsen presented a paper entitled Earnings, Fertility and Gender Differences in Choice of Field: Evidence from a Large-Scale Survey and National Administrative Data at the conference Meeting on Quantitative Educational Research in Denmark which took place from November 25-26, 2021.

Abstract:

The paper and the presentation uses a combination of survey and administrative data to address the following questions: (1) To what extent is there an earnings-fertility tradeoff in more heavily female fields (i.e., lower earnings and higher fertility)? (2) How much of the gender earnings gap is explained by gender differences in choice of degree; and how much by gender differences in the child penalty? And, (3) To what extent do applicants' expectations align with the realized outcomes of prior cohorts?

These questions relates to the large literature documenting a gender gap in earnings. One area of this literature argues that gender differences in choice of field largely explain gender differences in earnings.  More recent work argues that a large share of the earnings gap is due to women’s reduced earnings after they have a child.