The Gendered Consequences of Childbearing on Partners' Income Trajectories: Evidence from Administrative Tax Data

Carlos Gil-Hernández, University of Florence
Elisa Brini , University of Florence
Raffaele Guetto, University of Florence
Maria Luisa Maitino, IRPET
Letizia Ravagli, IRPET
Daniele Vignoli, University of Florence

The transition to parenthood is a key life-course event that triggers a divergence in the career trajectories of men and women, a phenomenon referred to as the child penalty. While extensive research has documented the motherhood penalty at the individual level, less is known about how childbirth affects partners' relative earnings within couples. This study examines how the birth of the first child affects partners' incomes by quantifying the within-couple child penalty, its persistence, and its heterogeneity by pre-birth characteristics, in order to test whether post-childbirth income inequalities reflect specialisation, bargaining power, or gender roles. Using unique Italian administrative tax records from 2022, we reconstruct a retrospective panel spanning 2003–2021 for about 85,000 different-sex married couples with women of reproductive age, observed from five years before to five years after their first childbirth. An event-study design with couple fixed effects estimates the impact of parenthood on intra-couple income inequality and its heterogeneity by partners' pre-birth earnings shares. Results reveal a sharp widening of the within-couple income gap following childbirth, with women's earnings falling markedly behind their male partner. What begins as a temporary loss during maternity leave evolves into a persistent penalty, especially among couples where women were the higher earners, ruling out explanation based on utility maximisation or bargaining power. By focusing on couples reather than individuals, this study extends the literature on child penalties showing how parenthood acts as a critical mechanism producing gender inequality, underscoring the need for policies that support women's labour market attachment after childbirth.

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 Presented in Session 55. Parenthood, Work and Inequality across the Life Course