Fertility and economic instability: the role of unemployment and job displacement

Emilia Del Bono, Andrea Weber, Rudolf Winter-Ebmer*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

In this paper, we study the separate effects of unemployment and job displacement on fertility in a sample of white collar women in Austria. Using an instrumental variable approach, we show that unemployment incidence as such has no negative effect on fertility decisions, but the very fact of being displaced from a career-oriented job has. Fertility rates for women affected by a firm closure are significantly below those of a control group, even after 6 years, and this is so irrespective of the incidence or the duration of the associated unemployment spell.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)463-478
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Population Economics
Volume28
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Fertility
  • Firm closures
  • Human capital
  • Unemployment

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