A note on the changing relationship between fertility and female employment rates in developed countries

By Namkee Ahn, P. Mira. 2002

676 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract. In this paper we look at a panel of OECD aggregate fertility and labor market data between 1970 and 1995 and we report some striking recent developments. Total Fertility Rates (TFR) were falling and Female Participation Rates (FPR) were increasing, conforming to a well known long-run trend. Along the cross-sectional dimension, the correlation between TFR and FPR was negative and significant during the 1970's and up to the early 1980's. This seemed consistent with secular comovements. However, by the late 1980's the correlation had become positive and equally significant. We discuss our findings within the framework of standard neoclassical models of fertility and labor supply adapted to macro data, as in Butz and Ward (1979).

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, Gender Studies, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3368e4910fab6d5210d2369e64ce28c801bde6b8

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Citations in the corpus

The Effect of Job Displacement on Couples’ Fertility Decisions (2016, neutral): “children ( Ahn & Mira 2001, 2002, Del Bono 2001, Fraser 2001).”
The impact of the labour market on the timing of marriage and births in Spain (2007, neutral): “Ahn and Mira (2002) argue that for sufficiently high levels of the female wage, further wage increases may lead to income effects prevailing over substitution effects and, consequently, may instigate a rise in fertility.”
How Do Changes in Gender Role Attitudes Towards Female Employment Influence Fertility? A Macro-Level Analysis (2015, background): “A second approach emphasizes the role of female employment, showing that the fertility rebound is especially likely to occur when, as in France, Scandinavia, or the UnitedStates, female employment becomes the norm (Ahn and Mira, 2002; Luci and Thévenon, 2010; OECD, 2011).”
Gender Equality and Fertility: Which Equality Matters? (2013, neutral): “These theoretical assumptions are partly confirmed by empirical macrolevel studies which show that the negative association between female labor-force participation and fertility has weakened over time or even changed to a positive one (Brewster and Rindfuss 2000; Ahn and Mira 2002; Engelhardt, Köge”
Low fertility in Europe: causes implications and policy options. (2006, background): “labor force participation (FLFPR) has changed its sign in OECD countries during the mid 1980s and early 1990s ( Ahn and Mira 2002; Engelhardt et al. 2004; Kogel 2004; Rindfuss et al. 2003).”
Explaining Changes in Female Labor Supply in a Life-Cycle Model (2008, background): “At+1 = R (At + (yt F (at))Pt + y t ct) (2)”
Family policies in OECD countries: a comparative analysis. (2011, background): “…highest fertility and lowest poverty rates have been those where a high percentage of women perform paid work (oeCd 2007). in these countries pro-family policies seem to strike a balance that is favorable to both women’s employment and fertility (ahn and mira 2002; d’addio and mira d’ercole 2005).”
The fertility response to the Great Recession in Europe and the United States : Structural economic conditions and perceived economic uncertainty (2017, background): “…unemployment not only supports studies showing a reversal of the association between female labor force participation and fertility rates (Ahn and Mira 2002; Rindfuss, Guzzo, and Morgan 2003; Engelhardt and Prskawetz 2004; Engelhardt, Kögel, and Prskawetz 2004) but also shows that even…”
Did the association between fertility and female employment within OECD countries really change its sign? (2001, background): “Ahn and Mira (2002), and Rindfuss, Benjamin and Morgan (2000) found that the cross-country correlation between the TFR and the FLP in OECD countries, which had been negative until about 1985, had changed to a positive value since then.”
PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE: The impact of Nordic countries’ family friendly policies on employment, wages, and children (2008, background): “reduce the costs of children, see Ahn and Mira (2002) , who also find that a large income effect due to women earning higher wages may explain why the relationship between fertility and female labor supply has turned more positive lately.”
An Economic History of Fertility in the U.S.: 1826-1960 (2006, neutral): “Census contains a question asking women how many children they had over their life - Children Ever Born (CEB).(1) This data was collected until 1990 with the exception of 1920 and 1930.”