Abstract:A discrete choice model for labor supply and child care for mothers of preschoolers is presented. The mothers are assumed to make choices from a finite set of job possibilities and from a finite set of child care options. The options in the markets for child care are characterized by opening hours, fees and a number of quality attributes, such as mode of care. Similarly, jobs are characterized by a (fixed) wage rate, working hours and a number of variables related to job satisfaction. In the estimation of the model we take into account that the number of options available might vary across work/care combinations, and that some mothers are rationed in the market for care at day care centers. The model is employed to simulate the female labor supply effects of the Norwegian home care allowance reform. Norway aim at improving work incentives for parents. However, they opted for a different approach when a "home care allowance" was introduced in 1998 that strengthen incentives to parents to provide care at home for their young preschoolers. The "home care allowance" gives parents of preschool children aged 1-2 years a transfer in cash, that depends on utilization of public or private day care centers: non-users are eligible to 36,000 Norwegian kroner (about 4,000 U.S. dollars) per year and per child in support, while provisions are scaled down to nil for users of full-time center-based care. 2 In effect, this means a substantial price increase of center-based care relative to the costs of other modes of care, i.e., other paid care and parental care. We expect that this policy change will reduce female labor supply. The total effect on labor supply is, however, not easily assessed since it depends, among other things, on the extent to which parents consider other paid care alternatives as an acceptable substitute for care at centers. KeywordsThe purpose of this paper is to develop and estimate a decision model for female labor supply and child care choices in order to predict the female labor supply responses of this policy change. We focus on mothers since they are assumed to be the primary caregiver and since results from empirical studies suggest that females are more responsive to changes in taxes and transfers than men.3 While traditional models of labor supply focus on the adjustment of hours spent at work and leisure, the literature on child care choices and labor supply emphasises that market work for 1 These figures apply to children 1-5 years old. Thanks to a generous maternity leave provisions, very few children attend day care centers in their first year. Children start school in their sixth year. 2 The term "home care allowance" is in accordance with the terminology used in Ilmakunnas (1997). However, the transfer might rather be characterised as an "out-of-child care center allowance". 3 There are, however, signs of convergence of opinions between the sexes in Norway regarding child care and outside work, which could mean that male income should also be treated as endogenous in future model pr...

This study explores the stability and change in maternal life satisfaction and psychological distress following the birth of a child with a congenital anomaly using 5 assessments from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study collected from Pregnancy Week 17 to 36 months postpartum. Participating mothers were divided into those having infants with (a) Down syndrome (DS; n = 114), (b) cleft lip/palate (CLP; n = 179), and (c) no disability (ND; n = 99,122). Responses on the Satisfaction With Life Scale and a short version of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist were analyzed using structural equation modeling, including latent growth curves. Satisfaction and distress levels were highly diverse in the sample, but fairly stable over time (retest correlations: .47-.68). However, the birth of a child with DS was associated with a rapid decrease in maternal life satisfaction and a corresponding increase in psychological distress observed between pregnancy and 6 months postpartum. The unique effects from DS on changes in satisfaction (Cohen's d = -.66) and distress (Cohen's d = .60) remained stable. Higher distress and lower life satisfaction at later assessments appeared to reflect a persistent burden that was already experienced 6 months after birth. CLP had a temporary impact (Cohen's d = .29) on maternal distress at 6 months. However, the overall trajectories did not differ between CLP and ND mothers. In sum, the birth of a child with DS influences maternal psychological distress and life satisfaction throughout the toddler period, whereas a curable condition like CLP has only a minor temporary effect on maternal psychological distress.

Extensive childhood health care needs are associated with reduced short-term employment prospects and remain a substantial influence on mothers' work participation during early motherhood, irrespective of other important characteristics associated with maternal employment.

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Models of labor supply derived from stochastic utility representations and discretized sets of feasible hours of work have gained popularity because they are more practical than the standard approaches based on marginal calculus. In this paper we argue that practicality is not the only feature that can be addressed by means of stochastic choice theory. This theory also offers a powerful framework for developing a more realistic model for labor supply choices, founded on individuals having preferences over jobs and facing restrictions on the choice of jobs and hours of work. We discuss and clarify how this modeling framework deviates from both the conventional discrete approach (Van Soest, 1995), as well as the standard textbook approach based on marginal calculus (Hausman, 1985). It is argued that a model based on job choice opens up for a more realistic representation of the choice environment, and consequently offers the possibility of conducting a richer set of simulations of alternative policies. Terms of use: Documents inJEL-Code: C510, J220, H240.

Mothers of pre-school children represent one part of the population that might be able to increase its labour supply. We discuss the effects of family policy changes that encourage the labour supply of these mothers, such as childcare fee reductions and increased availability of centre-based care. The effects of policy changes are described by using a joint labour supply and childcare choice decision model. Detailed empirical results are provided with respect to mothers' labour supply, families' childcare choices, public expenditures, and distributions of income and money metric utility.

This prospective population-based study examined associations between children’s behaviour problems and maternal employment. Information on children’s behaviour problems at 3 years from 22,115 mothers employed before pregnancy and participating in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study were linked to national register data on employment and relevant social background factors, mothers’ self-reported susceptibility to anxiety/depression and mother-reports of day-care attendance and fathers’ income. Mothers reporting their child to have severe (>2 SD) internalizing or severe combined behaviour problems (5 %) had excess risk of leaving paid employment irrespective of other important characteristics generally associated with maternal employment (RR 1.24–1.31). The attributable risk percent ranged from 30.3 % (internalizing problems) to 32.4 % (combined problems). Externalizing behaviour problems were not uniquely associated with mothers leaving employment.

Abstract:This paper analyzes labor force participation with particular reference to the discouraged worker effect. Discouraged workers are those who do not search for work because they view their chances of finding a suitable job as too low. The theoretical point of departure is a search model where the worker evaluates the expected utility of searching for work and decides to participate in the labor market if the expected utility of the search exceeds the utility of not working. From this framework we derive an empirical model for the probability that the worker will be unemployed or employed as a function of the probability of getting an acceptable job, given that the worker searches for work. The model is estimated on a sample of married and cohabitating women in Norway covering the period from 1988 to 2008. The results show that the discouraged worker effect is substantial. On average, about one third of those who are out of the labor force are discouraged according to our analysis.

This study examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on fertility in Norway at the individual level. Studies using data at the macro level have found a positive short-term effect of the pandemic on fertility level in Norway, but women's fertility response to the pandemic may differ depending on their life situation. We use the first lockdown on March 12, 2020 as a marker of the pandemic and apply a regression discontinuity design to compare births of women that were conceived before the pandemic started with those conceived during the first eight months of the pandemic. The positive effect on women's fertility in Norway was mainly driven by women in life phases that have generally high fertility rates (women aged 28-35 years and women who already have children). These groups are likely to be in an economic and socially secure and stable situation in which the restrictions due to the pandemic had limited influence. Besides two exceptions, we do not find differences in the effect of the pandemic on childbearing by women's work situation. This is most likely related to the strong welfare state and the generous additional pandemic-related measures taken by the Norwegian government.