| Motherhood and Female Labor Force Participation: Evidence from Infertility Shocks |
| Authors: |
Jorge M. Agüero & Mindy S. Marks |
| Source: |
American Economic Review, 2008. vol. 98(2), pages 500-504, DOI:10.1257/aer.98.2.500 |
| Topic(s): |
Fertility
|
| Country: |
Latin American/Caribbean
Multiple L.A./Caribbean Countries
|
| Published: |
MAY 2008 |
| Abstract: |
Abstract
We propose a new exogenous source of variation in family size based on infertility
shocks to nd the causal e ect of children on female labor force participation.
Clearly, infertility a ects the number of children a women can have. In addi-
tion, other than the fact of increasing with age, infertility is virtually random.
Thus, an indicator variable for the infertility status of women of childbearing
age is a plausible instrument for childbearing. We apply this methodology to a
sample of women in six Latin American countries, where OLS estimates suggest
a negative relationship between children and women's labor force participation.
Our main nding is that, after using the infertility instrument, there is no evi-
dence that children have a causal e ect on the labor force participation of women. |
| Web: |
http://www.aeaweb.org/annual_mtg_papers/2008/2008_606.pdf |
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