Publication details

Younger children and mothers’ labour supply in rural India: Evidence from fertility stopping behaviour

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Authors

GUPTA Isha

Year of publication 2024
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source JOURNAL OF POPULATION RESEARCH
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Economics and Administration

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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