This year we were accepted for the first time to the conference of European Society for Population Economics (ESPE), and it was an incredible experience. The conference had an amazing presidential address (by Libertad Gonzalez) and two outstanding keynotes (by Martha Bailey and Stefania Albanesi). Not only were they of exceptional quality, they also discussed topics that are dear to us: gender inequality, fertility and contraception.

Our contribution to the conference was our research on gender wage gaps among young workers, and differences in timing of first birth. Our analysis shows that increasing the age at first birth is associated with a substantial decline in gender wage gaps: postponing first birth by a year reduces the gap by around 15%. In order to establish causality, we propose a novel instrument that exploits international variation in approval of oral contraceptives (the pill).  Our estimates are consistent with a model of statistical discrimination where employers offer lower wages to women to hedge against the expected costs associated with childbearing and childrearing.

The slides from our presentation are below.