Mind the gap! The amount of German mothers’ care bill and its game theoretical issues

This paper aims to quantify West German mothers' foregone earnings that stem from intermittent labor market participation due to first birth. As Random Effects regression results with German Socio-Economic Panel Data (West) indicate, at the closure time of their fecundity window mothers realize gross hourly wage cuts up to 25 %, compared to equally educated career women, whereas the total of annualized losses amounts to as far as 201,000 Euro. In the context of a dynamic bargaining model of household decisions, the care bill is suspected of delaying first birth or even preventing women from motherhood if divorce seems sufficiently probable.