The impact of children on the labour supply off married women: comparative estimates from European and U.S. data.

This paper presents estimates of the impact of the age pattern and level of fertility on the probability of labor force participation by married and cohabiting women in 12 eastern and western European countries and the US. Logit models for labor force participation probabilities are estimated conditional on age, age at marriage or union, educational attainment, current parity, and number of years in parity, using data on married and cohabiting women from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Comparative Study of World Fertility Surveys. The estimated models are used to simulate the age profiles of labor force participation conditional on the level and timing of fertility. The simulation results are presented in a series of charts grouped according to similarities in the effects of fertility on the age profiles of labor force participation. Four distinct patterns are identified that depend on the empirical significance of distinct number-of-children and age-of-youngest-child effects. The role of family policies and the extent to which the labor supply reductions associated with childbearing can be interpreted as opportunity costs are considered.