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Is the Child Penalty Sustaining the Glass Ceiling Effect?

Fischer, Thomas LU ; Ali Akbari, Danial LU and Getik, Demid LU (2025)
Abstract
We document a substantial glass ceiling in the Swedish labor market: women constitute less than 20% within the top 1% of the earnings distribution. Using a structural micro-founded model of a dual earner household with learning-on-the-job, we link this to the child penalty. While on parental leave, women accumulate less human capital on the job, get promoted to a lesser extent, and hence are less likely to be within the top shares of the earnings distribution. A counterfactual exercise in the quantitative model shows that equalizing parental leave enforces female labor supply and thereby reduces the glass ceiling substantially. On the other hand, it also increases earnings inequality within the group of women and has little impact on the... (More)
We document a substantial glass ceiling in the Swedish labor market: women constitute less than 20% within the top 1% of the earnings distribution. Using a structural micro-founded model of a dual earner household with learning-on-the-job, we link this to the child penalty. While on parental leave, women accumulate less human capital on the job, get promoted to a lesser extent, and hence are less likely to be within the top shares of the earnings distribution. A counterfactual exercise in the quantitative model shows that equalizing parental leave enforces female labor supply and thereby reduces the glass ceiling substantially. On the other hand, it also increases earnings inequality within the group of women and has little impact on the gender gap towards retirement years. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Working paper/Preprint
publication status
published
subject
publisher
SSRN
DOI
10.2139/ssrn.5174411
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ea91855d-43a8-4089-9614-06daccfc7db2
date added to LUP
2026-03-10 13:14:26
date last changed
2026-03-11 09:13:10
@misc{ea91855d-43a8-4089-9614-06daccfc7db2,
  abstract     = {{We document a substantial glass ceiling in the Swedish labor market: women constitute less than 20% within the top 1% of the earnings distribution. Using a structural micro-founded model of a dual earner household with learning-on-the-job, we link this to the child penalty. While on parental leave, women accumulate less human capital on the job, get promoted to a lesser extent, and hence are less likely to be within the top shares of the earnings distribution. A counterfactual exercise in the quantitative model shows that equalizing parental leave enforces female labor supply and thereby reduces the glass ceiling substantially. On the other hand, it also increases earnings inequality within the group of women and has little impact on the gender gap towards retirement years.}},
  author       = {{Fischer, Thomas and Ali Akbari, Danial and Getik, Demid}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Preprint}},
  publisher    = {{SSRN}},
  title        = {{Is the Child Penalty Sustaining the Glass Ceiling Effect?}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5174411}},
  doi          = {{10.2139/ssrn.5174411}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}