Fertility as a driver of maternal employment

Abstract

Based on findings from high-income countries, typically economists hypothesize that having more children unambiguously decreases the time mothers spend in the labor market. Few studies on lower-income countries, in which low household wealth, informal child care, and informal employment opportunities prevail, find mixed results. Using Mexican census data, I find a positive effect of an instrument-induced increase in fertility on maternal employment driven by an increase in informal work. The presence of grandparents and low wealth appear to be important. Econometric approaches that allow extrapolating from this complier-specific effect indicate that the response in informal employment is non-negative for the entire sample.

Import Shocks and Gendered Labor Market Responses: Evidence from Mexico

“…However, these informal employment rates are much lower than those reported in the literature. Schmieder (2021) shows that this definition of informal employment identifies about two-thirds of informal employment in younger women based on the International Labour Organization ( 2013) definition with data from the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE). I want to emphasize that while I am not able to capture the whole universe of informal employment in Mexico, I offer a glimpse into adjustment horizons beyond formal employment.…”

“…Also, the sharp decline of female formal and especially informal employment can explain the decrease in women's labor force participation rates, as I discussed in Table 2. Because informal jobs offer more flexibility on which female workers depend, this can explain them rather dropping out of the labor force than transitioning into formal employment relations (Schmieder, 2021). The OECD (2017) notes that especially Mexican parents deal with an "all or nothing" choice in the labor market -if flexibility and less working hours are not possible,…”

Export intensity and its effect on women's employment

“…We have already argued above that the level of competition domestically is important for female employment. Lower fertility rates can increase female employment in the formal sector because of less time spent on childcare (Bloom et al, 2009) or a switch from the informal to the formal sector (Schmieder, 2021). Lower fertility rates can also encourage females to become entrepreneurs (Dutta & Mallick, 2018), which may reduce female workers.…”

The Impact of Maternity Insurance System on Women's High-Quality Employment -- Taking China as an Example

“…In Schmieder's study, the author used data from the 2010 Mexican census and the exogenous fertility rate differences generated by parents' preferences for mixed-sibling siblings [15]. The results indicate that increasing fertility beyond the second child does not lead to a reduction in women's labor supply.…”