Fertility postponement and labor market outcomes

Can Mothers Afford to Work in Poland: Labor Supply Incentives of Social Benefits and Childcare Costs

“…For instance, one-third of women ages 18-45 who have children in Poland "were either forced to give up work or failed to start it due to difficulties in providing care for their children" (CBOS 2013). Women who choose to postpone childbearing exhibit stronger labor market attachment and are more likely to have fewer children (Bratti 2015). On the other hand, the literature points that securing stable employment for women is a driver for couples to decide on having a second child (in light of greater financial security) (Bussolo, Koettl, and Sinnott 2015;Levin et al 2016).…”

The impact of postponing motherhood on women's income in Brazil

“…Thus, the analysis of the woman's age choice to have her first child, as well as the number of children she will have, becomes relevant to this discussion. Regarding the postponement of the decision to be a mother, Bratti (2015) affirms that such strategy may allow women to accumulate human capital before having a child, expand their participation in the labor market and boost their income. However, it may make this woman more likely to have fewer children.…”

“…In addition, inequality among women is evident when analyzing the role of fertility and its change over the past decades. According to Bratti (2015), most developed countries show an increase in the age women have their first child. As reported by data from IZA World of Labor (2015), between 1970 and 2011 the age of women giving birth to their first child increased by 6.0 years in Germany, 4.9 years in Italy, 2.7 in Sweden, and 2.3 years in the United States.…”

Women’s socioeconomic status and choice of birth control method: an investigation for the case of Turkey

“…In particular, if a woman stays out of the labour force during the childbearing period, she loses the opportunity to accumulate job training and experience, and may be subject to atrophy and even depreciation (Gupta & Smith, 2002;Adda et al, 2017). Hence, by postponing childbearing, women tend to accumulate more work experience, and this strengthens their attachment to the labour market and helps raise their wages (Bratti, 2015). Moreover, in the context of an 'overlapping generations' model, Kimura and Yasui (2007) argued that since there is a tradeoff between education to accumulate skills and childrearing, as both are time-sensitive activities, a skilled worker tends to choose to have fewer children than an unskilled one, and thus a rise in the fraction of skilled workers would lead to a decrease in average fertility rate.…”