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Female Employment and Fertility: The Effects of Rising Female Wages

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  • Christian Siegel

    (University of Exeter)

Abstract

Falling fertility rates have often been linked to rising female wages. However, over the last 30 years the US total fertility rate has been stable while female wages have continued to grow. Over the same period, women's hours spent on housework have declined, but men's have increased. I propose a model with a shrinking gender wage gap that captures these trends. While rising relative wages increase women's labor supply, they also lead to a reallocation of home production from women to men, and a higher use of labor-saving inputs. Both are important in understanding why fertility did not decline further.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Siegel, 2013. "Female Employment and Fertility: The Effects of Rising Female Wages," 2013 Meeting Papers 1058, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:sed013:1058
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    1. Female Employment and Fertility - The Effects of Rising Female Wages
      by UDADISI in UDADISI on 2012-08-01 20:07:00

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    Cited by:

    1. Christian Siegel, 2017. "Female Relative Wages, Household Specialization and Fertility," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 24, pages 152-174, March.
    2. Jørgen T. Lauridsen, 2015. "Is there a fertility paradox in Denmark?," ERSA conference papers ersa15p50, European Regional Science Association.
    3. Vera, Celia Patricia, 2018. "A structural approach to assessing retention policies in public schools," MPRA Paper 90657, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Johanna Wallenius & Tobias Laun, 2016. "Home and Market Hours, Human Capital Accumulation and Fertility," 2016 Meeting Papers 518, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. Mankart, Jochen & Oikonomou, Rigas, 2016. "The rise of the added worker effect," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 48-51.
    6. Liu, Jun & Liu, Taoxiong, 2020. "Two-child policy, gender income and fertility choice in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 1071-1081.
    7. Lauridsen, Jørgen T., 2017. "Small-Area Variation of Fertility Rates," DaCHE discussion papers 2017:4, University of Southern Denmark, Dache - Danish Centre for Health Economics.
    8. Macan, Vaneza Jean & Deluna, Roperto Jr, 2013. "Relationship of Income Inequality and Labor Productivity on Fertility in the Philippines: 1985-2009," MPRA Paper 51679, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Saridakis, George & Marlow, Susan & Storey, David J., 2014. "Do different factors explain male and female self-employment rates?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 345-362.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D13 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Production and Intrahouse Allocation
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • 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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