Entry into motherhood: The effect of wages (original) (raw)
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Female Labour Market Situation and Timing of the First Birth in Spain . ( draft )
2002
Using the Spanish Household Survey Data, we explore the determinants of the timing of the first child in Spain. Our aim is to determine the impact of income, wages and labour market situation in the decision of entry to motherhood. We estimate a discrete-time duration model, controlling for sample selection bias and unobserved heterogeneity. Our results show that employed women delay their first birth relative to women out of the labour force. Female wages have a positive effect on the hazard of having a first child. Those women whose partners have higher earnings have shorter birth interval.
The effects of children on mothers' employment and earnings: evidence from Spain
2013
Using a large and rich data set from administrative sources, we study the effects of children on mothers' employment and earnings in Spain. By being able to pinpoint the event of multiple births along a twenty-year panel of women's work history, we address two methodological hurdles in this research: the omitted-variable problem and concerns about twins as a good instrument for family size. We find that the effects of fertility on mothers' labor outcomes differ by level of education. Women with only compulsory education experience falls of 17 percent in employment and 15 percent in earnings, increased duration of non-employed spells, and reductions in the likelihood of holding a secondary job or chaining contracts within a certain employment spell. Among more educated women, the employment rate drops by a mere 4 percent and earnings increase slightly in some cases. Nonetheless, a relatively higher employment rate of more educated mothers, besides unexpected changes in family size, involves costs in terms of working conditions, like holding temporary contracts. Our results indicate that mothers in general have a hard time regaining employment as revealed by the sharp increase in the take-up rate of unemployment insurance benefits around the third month after the birth. Finally, we are able to obtain some results for the impact of family size on the labor supply of a second earner (husband) in the household. For instance, we find that second earners tend to compensate for mothers' income diminution. Julio Cáceres Delpiano gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education (Grant ECO2009-11165). Both authors are grateful for financial support from the Department of Employment of the Madrid Autonomous Community. The usual disclaimers apply.
Wage effects of motherhood: a double selection approach
Wage differentials between mothers and childless women are estimated correcting for the selectivity bias resulting from two double selection processes: firstly, the motherhood decision and the employment decision, and secondly the motherhood decision and the decision to be employed in a less demanding job. We use Dutch data on women's wages and construct an indicator for less demanding jobs. Our estimations indicate that the motherhood decision is strongly correlated with both employment and having a less demanding job. This suggests that ignoring these correlations will lead to inconsistent parameter estimations of wage equations. The selectivity corrected estimation of women's wage differentials indicate that a large part of the wage differential is composed by discrimination compared to estimations without correction for selectivity Draft version, June 13, 2003.We are grateful to Hans van Ophem for valuable comments.
2000
In this paper we anaIyze the effect of female labor force participation on fertility decisions. We focus on two issues that emerge when estimating such effect: (i) the endogeneity between fertility and participation; and (ii) the period in which participation is measured with respect to fertility. We account for the first problem by using an empirical model based on the assumption that women decide on labor force participation and childbearing in response to incentives provided by prices and incomes. The second issue is addressed exploiting the panel structure of our data (matched EPA files). which allow us to measure women labor force participation at several points in the time preceding a birth. Our results show that it is important to account for the endogeneity between participation and fertility and that women's attitude toward the labour market changes along the pregnancy.
The Motherhood Wage Penalty in a Mediterranean Country: The Case of Spain
2008
We present evidence for the motherhood wage penalty in Spain as a representative Southern European Mediterranean country. We use the the European Community Household Panel (ECHP, 1994(ECHP, -2001 to estimate, from both pool and fixed-effects methods, a wage equation in terms of observed variables and other nonobserved individual characteristics. The empirical results confirm that there is clear evidence of a wage penalty for Spanish working-women with children. Specifically, the fact that there is a birth in the family during the current year means that the woman loses 9% of her wage. We also find that, having one child living in the household means a significant loss in wages of 6%, having two children, almost 14% and having three or more, more than 15%.
Women´s wages and childbearing decisions: Evidence from Italy
Demographic Research, 2010
During the early 1990s, Italy became one of the first countries to reach lowest-low fertility. This was also a period in which women's education and labour force participation increased. We analyze the role of women's (potential) wages on their fertility decisions by making use of two different surveys. This enables us to apply discrete-time duration models. For first births, we find evidence of non-proportional hazards and of some "recuperation" effects; for second and third births, instead, wage exhibits small intensity although there is a clear division between Northern and Southern Italian regions.
The Effect of Fertility on the Decision of Abandoning the Labour Market: The Case of Spain
Taking into account the negative relationship between fertility and female labour participation due to the necessity of dedicating more time to childcare, in this paper we analyse, with a logit model and using microdata from the Spanish Labour Force Survey, the effect of having a newly born child on the woman’s decision to abandon the labour market, considering household characteristics and other economic variables which affect their labour participation decision. Our results show that having a newborn increases the woman’s probability of abandoning the labour market. We also find that this probability is reduced if there are any grandparents living in the household.
The Determinants of Motherhood and Work Status: A Survey
2006
In this paper we present important empirical evidence regarding recent trends in women’s participation and fertility in European countries, and provide several interpretations of the differences across countries. Several recent analyses have considered labour supply and fertility as a joint decision and have explicitly taken into account the endogeneity of fertility in labour market participation decisions of women. We survey microeconomic analyses that explore the impact of social policies on the joint decisions of labor market participation and fertility. The results of most analyses indicate that social policies, taking into account several variables (family background, the allocation of time within the household, religion and culture), have a very relevant role in explaining different degrees of incompatibility between employment and child rearing across different countries. The incompatibilities between motherhood and careers find reconciliation in policies that enhance employm...
Opportunity costs of having a child, financial constraints and fertility
Applied Economics Letters, 2007
La théorie économique suppose souvent l'influence simultanée sur la fécondité d'effets de coûts d'opportunité de l'enfant et d'effets de contrainte financière. La présente analyse vise à tester l'existence simultanée de ces deux types d'effets à partir des réponses à une enquête originale réalisée en 2003 auprès d'environ 1000 salariés français et renseignant sur leur renoncement à un ou des enfants supplémentaire(s). L'analyse statistique est réalisée avec une approche « toutes choses égales par ailleurs » via l'estimation de modèles logistiques. Les résultats des estimations apportent une forte confirmation à la présence simultanée de ces deux types d'effets.