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The Impact of Fertility on Mothers' Labour Supply in Australia: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size

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  • Julie Moschion

    (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne)

Abstract

This paper estimates the impact of fertility on mothers’ labour supply in Australia, using exogenous variation in family size generated by twin births and the gender mix of siblings. Results show that having more than one child decreases labour market participation by 15.5 percentage points and hours worked by around 6 hours per week. Having more than two children reduces labour market participation by between 12 and 20 percentage points and hours worked by between 3 and 8 hours a week, depending on the instrument used. Interestingly, fathers also reduce both their labour market participation (by 10 percentage points) and their number of hours worked per week (by 4 hours) when having more than one child. Compared with the results obtained with the same methodology for other countries, the effects for Australia are large, which partly reflects the constraints on public childcare and the lack of a national paid parental leave scheme prior to 2011.

Suggested Citation

  • Julie Moschion, 2011. "The Impact of Fertility on Mothers' Labour Supply in Australia: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2011n17, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    • Handle: RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2011n17
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    File URL: http://melbourneinstitute.unimelb.edu.au/downloads/working_paper_series/wp2011n17.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bruce Bradbury & Anna Zhu, 2018. "Welfare Entry and Exit after Marital Separation among Australian Mothers," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 94(307), pages 405-423, December.
    2. Öberg, Stefan, 2018. "Instrumental variables based on twin births are by definition not valid (v.3.0)," SocArXiv zux9s, Center for Open Science.
    3. Semih Tumen & Belgi Turan, 2023. "The effect of fertility on female labor supply in a labor market with extensive informality," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(4), pages 1855-1894, October.
    4. Tomoko Kishi, 2014. "Female Labour Supply in Australia and Japan: The Effects of Education and Qualifications," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 17(3), pages 233-255.
    5. Yew Seng Law & Chung-Khain Wye, 2023. "The effects of fertility on female labour force participation in OECD countries: the role of education and health," Studies in Economics and Econometrics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(3), pages 280-302, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Fertility; labour market participation; Australia; family policies;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • J22 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Time Allocation and Labor Supply

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