TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Biasi, Paola
AU  - Paola, Maria De
        TI  - How Institutions and Local Contexts Shape the Child Penalty: Evidence from Italy’s Public and Private Sectors
        PY  - 2026/Mar/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 18448
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp18448
        AB  - This paper examines the labor market consequences of motherhood in Italy, focusing on how institutional and local contexts shape the child penalty. Using INPS administrative data, we track mothers in the public and private sectors from three years before to five years after their first child’s birth. Employing an event-study framework with individual fixed effects, we estimate labor market exit probabilities and earnings losses by sector. Mothers face substantial, persistent penalties, much larger in the private sector, particularly regarding employment exits. Local conditions, childcare availability, unemployment rates, and gender norms, affect these outcomes mainly on the extensive margin, while earnings losses for those who remain employed are less sensitive. These contextual effects are strongest in the private sector, while public sector mothers are largely insulated from local factors.
        KW  - child penalty
KW  - public sector
KW  - private sector
KW  - event study
KW  - economic conditions
KW  - childcare availability
KW  - gender norms
        ER  -