Delayed First Birth and New Mothers' Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Biological Fertility Shocks

42 Pages Posted: 19 Jan 2013

See all articles by Massimiliano Bratti

Massimiliano Bratti

Università degli Studi di Milano - DEAS; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Laura Cavalli

University of Verona - Department of Economics

Abstract

We investigate the impact of delaying the first birth on Italian mothers' labor market outcomes around childbirth. The effect of postponing motherhood is identified using biological fertility shocks, namely the occurrence of miscarriages and stillbirths. Focusing on mothers' behavior around first birth our study is able to isolate the effect of motherhood postponement from that of total fertility. Our estimates suggest that delaying the first birth by one year raises the likelihood of participating in the labor market by 1.2 percentage points and weekly working time by about half an hour, while we do not find any evidence that late motherhood prevents a worsening of new mothers' job conditions (the so-called "mommy track"). Our findings are robust to a number of sensitivity checks, among which including controls for partners' characteristics and a proxy for maternal health status.

Keywords: delayed first birth, fertility shocks, Italy, labor market, new mothers

JEL Classification: J13, J22

Suggested Citation

Bratti, Massimiliano and Cavalli, Laura, Delayed First Birth and New Mothers' Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence from Biological Fertility Shocks. IZA Discussion Paper No. 7135, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2203325 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2203325

Massimiliano Bratti (Contact Author)

Università degli Studi di Milano - DEAS ( email )

Via Conservatorio, 7
I-20122 Milano
Italy

Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

P.O. Box 7240
Bonn, D-53072
Germany

Laura Cavalli

University of Verona - Department of Economics ( email )

Via dell'Artigliere, 8
37129 Verona
Italy

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