Younger children and mothers’ labour supply in rural India: Evidence from fertility stopping behaviour
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2024 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | JOURNAL OF POPULATION RESEARCH |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12546-024-09339-w |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12546-024-09339-w |
| Keywords | Female labour force participation; Fertility; Instrumental variable; Local average treatment effect (LATE); India; Compliers |
| Attached files | |
| Description | This paper estimates the causal effect of having young children aged 0 to 5 years on mothers’ labour force participation in rural India. To address the potential endogeneity in the fertility decision, I exploit Indian families’ preference for having sons. I leverage exogenous variation in the gender of older children aged 6+ years as an instrumental variable for having younger children aged 0 to 5 years in the family. IV estimates show that the mothers’ participation is significantly reduced by 9.9% due to the presence of young children aged 0 to 5 years in the household, with the negative effect mostly driven by mothers belonging to the highest income quartile; mothers with high education; and mothers residing in nuclear families. The findings highlight the need for investment in high-skilled jobs and formal childcare facilities to encourage mothers’ labour supply. Using the testable implications for the generalizability of LATE discussed in Angrist (2004), I show that the estimated causal effect is homogenous across compliers, always takers, and never takers and thus, generalizable to the whole population of interest. |
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