Events at CERGE-EI

Prof. Jan Stuhler

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain

Authors: Jan Stuhler, Alexandre Jenni and Josef Zweimüller

Abstract: We use Swiss administrative data to study the transmission of gender attitudes in the family. By iteratively linking siblings and spouses, we connect close and distant kins, and show that child penalties correlate across the extended family, decaying only slowly with kinship distance. A model in which latent gender attitudes are transmitted within families and sorted on in the marriage market can reproduce these patterns, as well as the correlations in linked survey data on stated attitudes. Because penalties and survey responses measure attitudes with error, observed correlations vastly understate family similarity: the sibling correlations in latent attitudes are around 0.7, and spouses share gender attitudes to an even greater degree. Although men themselves exhibit negligible penalties, they are carriers of norms: correlations travel through brothers much like through sisters. Our findings imply that attitudes reproduce strongly within family lines, contributing to the persistence and polarization of gender norms.