Female Jobs and Fertility: Long-term Experimental Evidence from Ethiopian Factories

Andreas Kotsadam, Janneke Pieters, Pauline Rossi, Espen Villanger, Céline Zipfel and Tigabu Getahun
Additional contact information
Janneke Pieters: Wageningen University
Espen Villanger: Chr. Michelsen Institute
Céline Zipfel: Stockholm School of Economics
Tigabu Getahun: EconInsight Center for Development Research

No 2026-12, Working Papers from Center for Research in Economics and Statistics

Abstract: We conducted an experiment with multiple factories in Ethiopia to test the widespread hypothesis that formal employment among women reduces fertility. Tracking respondents over eight years, we find that women who were randomly offered a job had more children than the control group. The effect on fertility emerged once the effect on wage employment faded away, around three years after baseline. There are clear effects on household income and savings, but not on bargaining power or marriage. These patterns are consistent with a Beckerian model in which the income effect dominates the substitution effect and households are credit constrained.

Keywords: Female employment; fertility; industrialization; sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J13 J16 J22 O15 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 62 pages
Date: 2026-10-08
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Working Paper: Female Jobs and Fertility: Long-term Experimental Evidence from Ethiopian Factories (2026)
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