When Is The Best Time To Give Birth?

Sylvia Frühwirth-Schnatter, Christoph Pamminger, Andrea Weber and Rudolf Winter-Ebmer

No 2014-08, Economics working papers from Department of Economics, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria

Abstract: Using Bayesian Markov chain clustering analysis we investigate career paths of Austrian women after their first birth. This data-driven method allows characterizing long-term career paths of mothers over up to 19 years by transitions between parental leave, non-employment and different forms of employment. We, thus, classify women into five cluster-groups with very different long-run career costs of childbearing. We model group membership with a multinomial specification within the finite mixture model. This approach gives insights into the determinants of the long-run family gap. Giving birth late in life may lead very diverse outcomes: on the one hand, it increases the odds to drop out of labor force, and on the other hand, it increases the odds to reach a high-wage career track.

Keywords: fertility; timing of birth; family gap; Transition Data; Markov Chain Monte Carlo; Multinomial Logit; Panel Data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: When Is The Best Time To Give Birth? (2014)
Working Paper: When Is the Best Time to Give Birth? (2014)
Working Paper: When Is The Best Time To Give Birth? (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jku:econwp:2014_08

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