Employment, Family Union, and Childbearing Decisions in Great Britain

45 Pages Posted: 14 Jul 2008

See all articles by Arnstein Aassve

Arnstein Aassve

University of Essex - Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER)

Matt Dickson

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Carol Propper

Imperial College London Business School; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); University of Bristol - Leverhulme Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: April 2004

Abstract

The paper investigates the relationship between work and family life in Britain. Using appropriate statistical techniques we estimate a five-equation model, which includes birth events, union formation, union dissolution, employment and non-employment events. The model allows for unobserved heterogeneity that is correlated across all five equations. We use information from the British Household Panel Survey, including the retrospective histories concerning work, union, and child bearing, to estimate this model. We obtain well-defined parameter estimates, including significant and correlated unobserved heterogeneity. We find that transitions in and out of employment for men are relatively independent of other transitions. In contrast, there are strong links between female employment, having children and union formation. By undertaking a detailed micro simulations analysis, we show that different levels of female labour force participation do not necessarily lead to large changes in fertility levels. Changes in union formation and fertility levels, on the other hand, do have a significant impact on employment rates.

JEL Classification: J12, J13, J22

Suggested Citation

Aassve, Arnstein and Dickson, Matt and Propper, Carol, Employment, Family Union, and Childbearing Decisions in Great Britain (April 2004). LSE STICERD Research Paper No. CASE084, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1159315

Arnstein Aassve (Contact Author)

University of Essex - Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) ( email )

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom

Matt Dickson

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Carol Propper

Imperial College London Business School ( email )

South Kensington Campus
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2AZ, SW7 2AZ
United Kingdom

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

University of Bristol - Leverhulme Centre for Market and Public Organisation (CMPO) ( email )

12 Priory Road
Bristol BS8 1TN
United Kingdom

HOME PAGE: http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Economics/department/profiles/propper.htm

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
32
Abstract Views
519
PlumX Metrics