Precautionary Fertility: Conceptions, Births, and Abortions around Employment Shocks

Anna Bardits, Anna Adamecz-Völgyi, Marta Bisztray, Andrea Weber and Agnes Szabo-Morvai ()

No 17988, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We study fertility responses to employment shocks. Using unique Hungarian administrative data that allow linking firm-level mass layoff and closure events to individual-level records on births and abortions, we show that the main response happens in anticipation of the shock. Responses differ by the availability of dismissal protection. While pregnancies increase in anticipation of all events, births only rise in case of mass layoffs when pregnant women are protected from layoffs. If the firm closes protection is lost and we find an increase in abortions. We interpret these results as evidence for precautionary fertility behavior. Women threatened by job displacement bring births forward to exploit dismissal protection, a strategy that breaks down if the firm closes permanently.

Keywords: Abortion; Pregnancy; Mass layoff (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP17988 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Working Paper: Precautionary Fertility: Conceptions, Births, and Abortions around Employment Shocks (2023)
Working Paper: Precautionary Fertility: Conceptions, Births, and Abortions around Employment Shocks (2023)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17988

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP17988

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().