The central hypothesis of the "new micro-economics of fertility" was examined, i.e., because children are female-time intensive, fertility is inversely related to the mother's wage. A theoretical model of lifetime family labor supply and completed fertility which forms the basis for the subsequent empirical investigation is presented. Empirical estimates of the model are provided using 1971 C...

Title of dissertation: WOMEN’S LABOR SUPPLY AND THE FAMILY Melinda Sandler Morrill, Doctor of Philosophy, 2008 Dissertation directed by: Professor Judith K. Hellerstein Department of Economics The past century has seen a tremendous rise in female labor force participation. My dissertation addresses aspects of how the American family has shaped and has been shaped by rising levels of female labo...

Female labor market activity is dependent on the presence and the age of a child, but how do the determinants develop in magnitude and significance with the child’s age? Using German SOEP data from 1991 to 2006 for mothers with young children, the change in maternal labor supply when the child is one, two, and three years old is explicitly addressed. According to the detailed descriptive analys...

Female Labor Supply and Divorce: New Evidence from Ireland If participation in the labor market helps to secure women’s outside options in the case of divorce/separation, an increase in the perceived risk of marital dissolution may accelerate the increase in female labor supply. This simple prediction has been tested in the literature using time and/or spatial variation in divorce legislation (...

Over the last two decades Indonesia has experienced a significant decline in fertility rates and substantial increases in the level of education of women. Despite this development female labor force participation rates have remained roughly constant throughout this period. This paper explores the causes for the seeming unresponsiveness of female labor supply to changes in fertility. The empiric...