Does the effect of young children on mother's labor supply differ by education and race? An analysis of married women's labor force participation and worked hours in the United States, 1975--2000

This dissertation looks at how mother's education and race are important determinants of the size, pattern, and even the sign of the effect of young children on their mother's labor supply. Young children, those less than three years old, are one of the most important causes of interruptions and changes in women's labor supply. This study uses this effect to help better understand the factors that underlie the degree of women's attachment to the labor market. It extends over the USA over the last quarter of the 20th century, a period of time when the labor force participation of mothers with babies shows a higher growth rate than that of women with older children or without children. This study estimates different static labor supply models using the biggest annual survey conducted by the Bureau of the Census and analyzes the decision to work at the extensive and intensive margins as well as the distribution of hours of work between 1975 and 2000. The study also allows for the presence of non-linear effects by including mother's education and the age of the youngest child in categories rather than linearly. The differential effect of babies by mother's education is shown to be consistent throughout the three models. Although highly educated women have the highest labor force participation rate, and the highest number of worked hours when they have babies, they are the most affected by young children. The effect of young children also increases at the end of the period. Overall, they show the greatest degree of flexibility to adjust the number of hours of work when they have babies: they exhibit the greatest change in the distribution of hours worked when babies are present. On the other hand, women with lower levels of education are more concentrated in full-time jobs regardless of the presence of babies. In particular, the presence of babies induces highly educated women into part-time employment, while inducing low educated women to leave part-time position and the labor market.