酷兔英语

为人父母并不会扼杀一个人的事业。实际上,拥有两个或更多孩子的经济学家往往会比那些仅有一个孩子或者没有孩子的经济学家从事更多的研究工作。但女性经济学家在当上妈妈之后会在工作效率上付出代价,尤其是在她们成为年轻母亲或未婚生育的情况下。


Parenthood isn't a career-killer. In fact, economists with two or more kids tend to produce more research, not less, than their one-child or childless colleagues.


这一结论来自圣路易斯联邦储备银行(Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)一项最新的研究,也就是由苏黎世大学(University of Zurich)的马西亚斯·克拉普夫(Matthias Krapf)、康斯坦茨大学(University of Konstanz)的海因里希·乌尔施普龙(Heinrich Ursprung)和圣路易斯联邦储备银行的克利斯蒂安·齐默尔曼(Christian Zimmermann)本月发表的一篇名为《为人父母与高技能劳动者工作效率的关系:来自学术界的证据》(Parenthood and Productivity of Highly Skilled Labor: Evidence from the Grove of Academe)的工作论文。


But female economists in particular can pay a price in terms of productivity after becoming mothers, especially if they're young or unmarried.


他们写道,人们普遍相信成为人母会在职业生涯发展上付出极高的代价。大家经常说,年轻女性从事具有挑战性职业的唯一办法就是不要孩子。但我们通过对学术界劳动力市场的研究发现,情况并不这么令人沮丧。我们没有发现女性学术经济学家的学术研究效率因拥有家庭而出现差距。另外,因成为人母而导致的研究效率下降也不像人们通常所说的那么明显。


That's according to new research from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, a working paper ('Parenthood and Productivity of Highly Skilled Labor: Evidence from the Grove of Academe') published this month by Matthias Krapf of the University of Zurich, Heinrich Ursprung of the University of Konstanz and Christian Zimmermann of the regional reserve bank.


该文作者在2012年初通过《经济学研究论文网》(Research Papers in Economics)的在线平台对大约10,000名经济学家进行了调查,将这些学者的回答与他们的论文发表情况相对照。他们通过统计这些经济学家的论文产量(发表的研究论文数量并按期刊的质量加权)来衡量他们的工作效率。


'There is widespreadconviction that motherhood is extremelycostly in terms of professionalcareer advancement. In particular, it is often argued that the only way for young women to make a challenging career is to remain childless,' they wrote. 'Our study of the academic labor market arrives at a somewhat less dreary picture: We do not observe a family gap in research productivity among femaleacademic economists. Moreover, motherhood-induced decreases in research productivity are less pronounced than usually purported.'


以下是他们得出的一些结论:


The authors in early 2012 surveyed about 10,000 economists through the Research Papers in Economics online platform, matching the academics' answers with their publication records. They gauged an economist's productivity by looking at their output: published research, weighted by journal quality.


至少拥有两个孩子的母亲平均比只有一个孩子的母亲工作效率更高,有孩子的女性总体上比没有孩子的女性工作效率更高。至少拥有两个孩子的父亲也比只有一个孩子和没有孩子的父亲有更多的工作成果。但在职业生涯的终点,没有孩子的男性似乎比只有一个孩子的男性工作成果更多。


Among their findings:


当孩子12岁或者更小时,为人父母的身份的确看上去与工作效率的降低有关:母亲的工作成果平均减少17.4%,而父亲的工作成果平均减少5%。有三个孩子的女性经济学家在孩子长到十几岁时会平均损失掉相当于四年的研究成果。


*'Mothers of at least two children are, on average, more productive than mothers of only one child, and mothers in general are more productive than childless women. Fathers of at least two children are also more productive than fathers of one child and childless men. Toward the end of their careers, however, childless men appear to be somewhat more productive than fathers of one child.'


已婚或处于稳定关系的女性在生孩子后的头三年中工作效率并没有下降,而同期单身母亲的研究成果会减少约三分之一。


*Parenthood does appear linked to lower productivity while the children are 12 and younger: mothers average a 17.4% loss, while fathers average a 5% loss. A femaleeconomist with three children, on average, loses the equivalent of four years of researchoutput by the time her kids become teenagers.


在30岁之前生第一个孩子的女性经济学家的工作效率较低;而第一次生孩子时年龄大于30岁的女性,虽然工作效率也有所下降,但降幅要小得多,而且在统计上没有意义。


*Women who are married or in a stablerelationship 'do not have any drop in research productivity in the three years following childbirth.' For single mothers, researchoutput drops by roughly a third over the same period.


没有获得终身教职的男性经济学家在有孩子后工作效率会提高,而拥有终身教职的男性经济学家则没有变化。女性经济学家没有体现出类似的影响。


*Female economists who have their first child before the age of 30 are less productive, while 'for older first-time mothers, the effect remains negative, but it is much smaller and lacks statistical significance.'


Ben Leubsdorf