Journal Article

Clash of career and family: fertility decisions after job displacement

Publication details

Publication date
Published in
Journal of the European Economic Association
Volume
10
Pages
pp. 659–683
Publisher
Wiley
ISSN
15424766

Summary

In this paper we investigate how career considerations may affect fertility decisions in the presence of a temporary employment shock. We compare the birth rates of women displaced by a plant closure with those of women unaffected by job loss after establishing the pre-displacement comparability of these groups. Our results reveal that job displacement reduces average fertility by 5%–10%, and that these effects are largely explained by the response of women in more skilled occupations. We offer an explanation of our results based on career interruptions of women.

Notes

Albert Sloman Library Periodicals *restricted to Univ. Essex registered users*

Topics