The Effect of Fertility on Mothers' Labor Supply over the Last Two Centuries. Issue 633 (25th August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Aaronson, Daniel; Dehejia, Rajeev; Jordan, Andrew; Pop-Eleches, Cristian; Samii, Cyrus; Schulze, Karl
• Is Part Of: Economic journal. Volume 131:Issue 633(2021)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 32
• Publication Date: 2020-08-25
• Subjects: Economics -- Periodicals; Économie politique -- Périodiques; 330.05
• DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueaa100
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-0133

Abstract

Abstract: Using a compiled data set of 441 censuses and surveys from between 1787 and 2015, representing 103 countries and 51.4 million mothers, we find that: ( i ) the effect of fertility on labour supply is typically indistinguishable from zero at low levels of development and large and negative at higher levels of development, ( ii ) the negative gradient is stable across historical and contemporary data, and ( iii ) the results are robust to identification strategies, model specification, and data construction and scaling. Our results are consistent with changes in the sectoral and occupational structure of female jobs and a standard labour–leisure model.