Beliefs and Gender Inequality

Project Information

BELIEFS

Grant agreement ID: 948371

DOI

10.3030/948371

EC signature date 11 December 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 31 March 2027

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 496 957,00

EU contribution

€ 1 496 957,00

Coordinated by

RHEINISCHE FRIEDRICH-WILHELMS-UNIVERSITAT BONN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - BELIEFS (Beliefs and Gender Inequality)

Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

There are large differences in earnings between men and women. Recent work highlights the importance of parenthood for the existence of gender inequality in the labor market. Estimates of the long-run ‘child penalty’, i.e. the impact of having children on women’s relative to men’s earnings, are large and vary substantially across countries. Neither the existence of child penalties nor the striking variation across regions/countries in child penalties is well understood. BELIEFS will collect large-scale representative survey data from different countries to study the role of several factors in explaining gender differences in fertility and labor supply decisions. More specifically, it will examine the role of (i) beliefs about the benefits/costs to fertility and labor supply choices, (ii) preferences for having children and for work/leisure, (iii) constraints, and (iv) social norms. BELIEFS will explore different dimensions of heterogeneity and study the individual-level (gender, age etc.) and country-level (labor regulations, family policies etc.) determinants of these factors. It will study whether there are misperceptions of norms and identify whether informing individuals of prevalent social norms shifts their beliefs about the benefits/costs to men/women working and their support for public policies. BELIEFS examines educational, fertility and labor supply decisions in a dynamic life-cycle framework and explores the role of beliefs, preferences, constraints and norms in those decisions. The dynamic framework will also be used to study the role of perceived child penalties in explaining fertility and educational choices. The project is highly ambitious in its scope and it is highly innovative in its combination of research methods. Ultimately, this research agenda will shed light on what drives gender gaps in labor market outcomes as well as which policies may be effective in narrowing these gaps.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The main objective of BELIEFS is to study the drivers of gender inequality in labor market outcomes. To understand what drives gender inequality in labor market outcomes, it is crucial to shed light on what drives mothers’ decisions to reduce their work hours when they have young children. We collect novel representative survey data to study perceived returns to maternal labor supply. For this purpose, we design a novel survey to elicit subjective expectations, and show that a mother’s decision to work is perceived to have sizable impacts on child skills, family outcomes, and the future labor market outcomes of the mother. Examining the channels through which the impacts are perceived to operate, we document that beliefs about the impact of additional household income can account for some, but not all, of the perceived positive effects. Beliefs about returns substantially vary across the population and are predictive of labor supply intentions under different policy scenarios related to childcare availability and quality, two factors that are also perceived as important. Consistent with socialization playing a role in the formation of beliefs, we show that respondents whose own mother worked perceive the returns to maternal labor supply as higher.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The main goal of BELIEFS is to obtain a more profound understanding of the root causes of gender inequality in labor market outcomes, using novel survey methodologies which allow us to obtain more detailed information on individual beliefs and other relevant factors. To understand which obstacles there are to an equitable division of labor within the household, we need a better understanding of what drives women’s and men’s choices. A chief obstacle to studying what drives individual decisions is the lack of appropriate data. Observed choices are driven by a combination of different factors such as beliefs, preferences, constraints, and social norms. To shed more light on the individual decision-making process, it is therefore crucial to collect new data, and to design novel surveys that allow us to elicit individual beliefs and preferences. This project advances the measurement of beliefs and preferences related to the important life decisions studied in this project. It is expected to generate insights into why women and men make different labor supply decisions when they have young children and which policy interventions have the potential to narrow gender gaps in labor market outcomes.

image-erc-beliefs.jpg