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Effect of Fertility on Female Labour Force Participation in the United Kingdom

Author

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  • Patralekha Ukil

    (The author is at the Department of Economics, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata. The primary draft of this research was written at the University of Warwick, UK. email: patralekha.ukil.101@gmail.com)

Abstract

This article aims to estimate the causal effect of fertility on the labour force participation of British women. In order to account for the possible endogeneity of fertility variables, the sex composition of the two previous children of a mother has been used as an instrument for fertility. The Two-stage Residual Inclusion (2SRI) estimation method is used on a relatively new British data set—‘Understanding Society’. The results suggest that fertility is indeed endogenous to the labour force participation decisions of women in the sample, and that not accounting for the endogeneity of the fertility variable leads to an exaggeration of the negative effect of fertility on female labour force participation. Important policy recommendations are drawn from the results. JEL Classification: J13, J22

Suggested Citation

  • Patralekha Ukil, 2015. "Effect of Fertility on Female Labour Force Participation in the United Kingdom," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 9(2), pages 109-132, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:mareco:v:9:y:2015:i:2:p:109-132
    DOI: 10.1177/0973801014568145
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Muzhi Zhou & Man-Yee Kan, 2019. "A new family equilibrium? Changing dynamics between the gender division of labor and fertility in Great Britain, 1991–2017," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 40(50), pages 1455-1500.
    2. Iryna Lukianenko & Marianna Oliskevych, 2017. "Evidence of Asymmetries and Nonlinearity of Unemployment and Labour Force Participation Rate in Ukraine," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2017(5), pages 578-601.
    3. repec:prg:jnlpep:v:preprint:id:633:p:1-24 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Female Labour Force Participation; Fertility; Endogeneity; Instrumental Variables; Two-stage Residual Inclusion;
    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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