Arna Olafsson will deliver a lecture on child penalties in personal finances on May 16th. The location will be announced at a later date.
Child Penalties in Personal Finances:
Evidence from Bank Data
Using detailed and comprehensive bank data, we study the impacts that children have
on gender gaps in financial choices. It is well established that women are, on average,
less likely to participate in risky asset markets and save less. We show that the arrival of
children contributes to the gender gaps in these financial choices: At the exact point in
time when women become mothers their propensity to participate in risky asset markets
drops and their propensity to save through savings accounts does as well, the amounts
they hold in savings accounts is reduced as well as their average monthly savings, and they
draw down their private pensions. These outcomes are unaffected as men become fathers.
We therefore conclude there are “child penalties” in personal finances that contribute to
the gender gaps in financial choices.
Co-author: David Westerheide
Arna is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Department of Finance at Copenhagen Business School, a Research Fellow at the Danish Finance Institute, a Research Affiliate at CEPR, a CEPR Household Finance Network Member, a member of The Center for Big Data in Finance (BIGFI) at Copenhagen Business School and a Research Fellow at the Pension Research Centre (PeRCent) at Copenhagen Business School.
