The Effects of Child-Bearing on Married Women's Labor Supply and Earnings: Using Twin Births as a Natural Experiment

30 Pages Posted: 24 Oct 1996 Last revised: 8 Dec 2022

See all articles by Jaisri Gangadharan

Jaisri Gangadharan

University of Kansas

Joshua L. Rosenbloom

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Iowa State University - Department of Economics

Joyce Jacobson

affiliation not provided to SSRN

James Wishart Pearre III

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: July 1996

Abstract

Married women's decisions about child-bearing and market work are importantly interrelated. Although there are many estimates of the effects of fertility on female labor supply few of them have adequately addressed the problems of simultaneity inherent in these choices. In this paper, we use exogenous variations in fertility due to twin births to measure the impact of an unanticipated child on married women's labor supply and earnings. We find that the short-run effects of an unanticipated birth on labor supply are appreciable and have increased in magnitude as more mothers enter the labor market. It also appears that the impact of unanticipated births on earnings and wages has changed from 1980 to 1990. In 1980 reduced labor supply caused a temporary drop in earnings, but in 1990 earnings and wages remained depressed well after the labor supply effects of a twin birth had disappeared.

Suggested Citation

Gangadharan, Jaisri and Rosenbloom, Joshua L. and Jacobson, Joyce and III, James Wishart Pearre, The Effects of Child-Bearing on Married Women's Labor Supply and Earnings: Using Twin Births as a Natural Experiment (July 1996). NBER Working Paper No. w5647, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3434

Jaisri Gangadharan

University of Kansas

1415
Lawrence, KS 66045
United States

Joshua L. Rosenbloom (Contact Author)

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Iowa State University - Department of Economics ( email )

260 Heady Hall
Ames, IA 50011
United States

Joyce Jacobson

affiliation not provided to SSRN

No Address Available

James Wishart Pearre III

affiliation not provided to SSRN

No Address Available

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