1 MOTHERS’ AND DAUGHTERS’ EMPLOYMENT IN EUROPE. A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS Gabriella Berloffa, Eleonora Matteazzi, Alina Şandor, Paola Villa* Abstract This paper analyzes the intergenerational correlation of employment between young women (at about 30 years of age) and their mothers (when daughters were about 14 years old), using EU-SILC data. It examines the extent to which this correlation varies across 19 European countries, and is associated with the national socioeconomic context. Having grown up with a working mother is associated with a sizeable increase in daughters’ employment probability in almost all countries, with larger effects for women with children. For this group, the intergenerational correlation is smaller in countries where the policy context is less favorable to maternal employment, i.e. where ‘constraints’ may obscure the intergenerational transmission of preferences. Hence, it is crucial to create conditions that allow young women’s preferences for work to be reflected in employment outcomes, by strengthening policies that favor a balanced sharing of unpaid work, and a larger externalization of care work. Keywords: Mothers, Labor Market, Family, Gender Analysis, Social Norms. JEL classification codes: J16, J62, D19 * Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento, Italy (GB, PV); Department of Economics, University of Verona, Italy and EconomiX-CNRS, France (EM); Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York, UK (AS). The authors would like to thank Jacqueline O’Reilly, Francesca Bettio, participants to the IAFFE 28th Annual Conference (Glasgow, June 27-29, 2019), ECINEQ 8th Annual Meeting (Paris, July 3-5, 2019) for helpful comments and suggestions.