Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: Navigating Motherhood: Endogenous Penalties and Career Choice
Author-Name: Sen Coskun
Author-Email: sena.coskun@fau.de
Author-Name: Husnu Dalgic
Author-Email: dalgic@uni-mannheim.de
Author-Name: Yasemin Ozdemir
Author-Email: yasemin.oezdemir@uni-bayreuth.de

Classification-JEL: E24, J13, J22, J24


Keywords:child penalty, fertility, sectoral gender segregation, job switch, quality-quantity trade-off

Abstract: Women strategically sort into "family-friendly" sectors characterized by lower returns to experience but also lower per-child penalties, before the birth of their first child.
This pre-birth sorting represents an ex-ante career cost, a "sorting penalty" not captured
by conventional measures. We build a heterogeneous agent model of career choice and fertility, incorporating both quality-quantity (Q-Q) and time-expenditure
(T-E) trade-offs, to quantify this cost. Our central finding is that despite this sorting
penalty being surprisingly small, it reveals an important mechanism: Women at the productivity margin are the switchers and use the Q-Q and T-E trade-offs as their primary,
more powerful tools to navigate motherhood and career. Our findings highlight
that frameworks excluding these trade-offs will overestimate the fertility responses
and career costs associated with policies.
Note: 
Length: 53
Creation-Date: 2025-12
Revision-Date: 
File-URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp722
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:CRCTR224_2025_722