Both Europe and the United States have experienced a steady decline in fertility rates. While a number of factors are at play, one important economic determinant is the lack of wage growth experienced by women temporarily exiting the labor market for the purpose of childbirth. Many countries have responded to this by introducing public policy measures which aim to mitigate the impact of this so-called “child penalty.” This conference discussed the presence of the child penalty and the impact of family-friendly policies on family formation, labor marker behavior, and wages.
This event was co-sponsored by Bank of Spain – Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI) and the Georgetown University Global Economic Challenges Network.
Featured
Israel Arroyo has been the secretary of state for economy and business support of Spain since 2024. Previously, he served as the secretary of state for social security and pensions.
Olympia Bover is a senior research associate at the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI) and a former economist at the Banco de España, where she was the director of the Department of Structural Analysis and Microeconomic Studies. Previously, she was a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics.
Lídia Farré is a tenured scientist at the Institute for Economic Analysis (IAE-CSIC), affiliated professor at the Barcelona School of Economics, and the program director of the BSE Master’s Program in Economics of Public Policy. She is also a research fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) and external fellow at the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
Raquel Fernández is the Julius Silver, Roslyn S. Silver and Enid Silver Winslow Professor of Economics at New York University. She is a fellow of the Econometric Society, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research.
Nezih Guner is professor of economics and director at the Center for Monetary and Financial Studies (CEMFI). He is also a Banco de España-CEMFI research associate.
Alexander Ludwig is a professor of economics at European University Institute (EUI, Florence). He is also a member as well as co-founder of the Frankfurt Quantitative Macro Group (FQMG) and research fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).
Costas Meghir is the Douglas A. Warner III Professor of Economics at Yale University. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, fellow of the Econometric Society, fellow of the British Academy, and fellow of the Society for Labor Economics.
Barbara Petrongolo is a professor of economics at the University of Oxford and professorial fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. She is also a fellow at the British Academy and research associate at the Centre for Economic Performance.
Francis Vella is the Edmond V. Villani Professor at Georgetown University. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society.
Alessandra Voena is professor of economics at Stanford University and an editor of the Journal of Labor Economics. She has previously taught at the University of Chicago and has been a visiting assistant professor at Yale University and a postdoctoral fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Ernesto Villanueva is economist at the Directorate General for Economics, Statistics, and Research at Banco de España (BdE), the Central Bank of Spain. Since November 2018, he has been the head of BdE’s Microeconomic Studies Division.
Schedule
9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. CET | Welcome and Registration
9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. CET | Session 1 - Parental Leave Policies, chaired by Francis Vella
- Lidia Farre, "Changing Gender Norms across Generations? Evidence from a Paternity Leave Reform," with Christina Felfe, Libertad González, and Patrick Schneider.
- Raquel Fernandez, "Parental Leave: Economic Incentives and Cultural Change," with Jim Albrecht, Per-Anders Edin, J. Lee, Peter Thoursie, and Susan Vroman.
11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. CET | Coffee
11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. CET | Session 2 - Changing Households, chaired by Olympia Bover
- Alex Ludwig, "On Sandwiches and Club Sandwiches: Institutions, Longevity, and Fertility," with Lidia Cruces, Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, and Teresa Schlidmann.
- Costas Meghir, "Changes in Marital Sorting: Theory and Evidence from the United States," with Pierre-André Chiappori, Monica Costa Dias, and Hanzhe Zhang.
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. CET | Lunch
2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. CET | Session 3 - Fertility, chaired by Nezih Guner
- Barbara Petrongolo, "Birth Timing and Spacing: Implications for Parental Leave Dynamics and Child Penalties," with Abigail Adams and Mathias Fjællegaard Jensen.
- Alessandra Voena, "Childbirth and Firm Performance: Evidence from Norwegian Entrepreneurs," with John Bonney and Luigi Pistaferri.
4:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. CET | Session 4 - Family Friendly Policies, chaired by Manuel Arellano
- Nezih Guner, "Family Friendly Policies and Fertility: What Firms Got to Do with It?" with Olympia Bover, Yuliya Kulikova, Alessandro Ruggieri, and Carlos Sanz.
5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. CET | Panel Discussion - Family-Friendly Policies: Challenges for Public Policy, chaired by Francis Vella
- Israel Arroyo, Raquel Fernandez, Ernesto Villanueva, and Alessandra Voena.