Changes in Women's Employment Across Cohorts
The Effect of Number and Timing of Births
Description:... We document changes in life-cycle patterns of employment, total number of children ever born, and age of mother at birth of first child for 2 cohorts of married women born in the United States in 1940 and 1960. Using a dynamic life-cycle model of employment decisions with experience accumulation, we argue that to account for the large increase in married women's employment across cohorts, changes in fertility patterns are crucial, and complementary to existing explanations. We use our model to assess the impact of changes in cost of children and gender wage differentials on life-cycle employment decisions of married women.
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