Publication: The effects of children on mothers' employment and earnings : evidence from Spain
Loading...
Identifiers
Publication date
2013-07
Defense date
Authors
Advisors
Tutors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Impact
Export
Abstract
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.