Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

How much do children really cost? Maternity benefits and career opportunities of women in academia

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Epifanio, Mariaelisa and Troeger, Vera (2013) How much do children really cost? Maternity benefits and career opportunities of women in academia. Working Paper. Coventry, UK: Department of Economics, University of Warwick. CAGE Online Working Paper Series, Volume 2013 (Number 171).

[img]
Preview
Text (Working paper)
WRAP_171-2013_epifanio.pdf - Published Version

Download (419Kb) | Preview
Official URL: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/resear...

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Motherhood and professional achievements appear as conflicting goals even for academic
women. This project explores this tension by focusing on a set of provisions on parental
and maternity leaves across 165 higher education institutions in the UK. Generous
maternity provisions generate countervailing incentives for female academics. On the one
hand, advantageous policies can foster women’s productivity in terms of research
outcomes allowing them to take time out of work without income and career break
concerns. On the other hand, women can exploit generous provisions without generating
returnable results for the academic institution. We argue that adverse selection problems
lead universities to differentiate among academic staff by offering two different types of
maternity provisions (more vs less generous maternity leaves) in order to “test” women’s
commitment and research ability before offering permanent contracts. Our results support
this this line of argumentation. We also find that generous maternity leaves and childcare
provisions positively affect the number of women at research and professorship levels.

Item Type: Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Maternity leave -- Great Britain, Universities and colleges -- Great Britain, Women -- Employment -- Great Britain
Series Name: CAGE Online Working Paper Series
Publisher: Department of Economics, University of Warwick
Place of Publication: Coventry, UK
Official Date: September 2013
Dates:
DateEvent
September 2013Published
Volume: Volume 2013
Number: Number 171
Number of Pages: 27
Institution: University of Warwick
Status: Not Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics

twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us