Children and Their Parents' Labor Supply: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size

Joshua Angrist and William Evans

American Economic Review, 1998, vol. 88, issue 3, 450-77

Abstract: Research on the labor-supply consequences of childbearing is complicated by the endogeneity of fertility. This study uses parental preferences for a mixed sibling-sex composition to construct instrumental variables (IV) estimates of the effect of childbearing on labor supply. IV estimates for women are significant but smaller than ordinary least-squares estimates. The IV are also smaller for more educated women and show no impact of family size on husbands' labor supply. A comparison of estimates using sibling-sex composition and twins instruments implies that the impact of a third child disappears when the child reaches age thirteen. Copyright 1998 by American Economic Association.

Date: 1998
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Working Paper: Children and Their Parents' Labor Supply: Evidence from Exogenous Variation in Family Size (1996)
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